W^^*r^^mWT^^-^'^(-^S'^'^^^^  'V't?'!':,::  ■'"'■"'■1 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 

GIFT  OF 

FREDERIC  THOMAS  BLANCHARD 

FOR  THE 

ENGLISH  READING  ROOM 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arcinive 

in  2007  witii  funding  from 

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littp://www.arcliive.org/details/bookofwondercliroOOdunsiala 


'I'hk  I'lixii-;  OK    rill':   Wom.i) 


The  'Book  of  IVonder 


A  Chronicle  of  Little  Adventures 
at  the  Edge  of  the  World 


The 
Book  of  Wonder 


A  Chronicle  of  Little  Adventures 
at  the  Edge  of  the  World 


BY 


Lord  \JDuns  any 

With  Illustrations  by 
S.   H.   SIME 


BOSTON 
JOHN  W.  LUCE  &  COMPANY 


Acknowledgments 

My  thanks  are  due  to  the  Editor  of 
The  Sketch  for  permission  to  reprint  here 
twelve  of  these  tales,  which  as  '^Epi- 
sodes from  The  Book  of  Wonder"  were 
printed  in  his  columns.  Many  were 
abbreviated  to  suit  the  exigencies  of  the 
Paper  and  are  here  given  in  full. 

I  again  offer  my  thanks  to  the  Editor 
of  The  Saturday  Review  for  permission  to 
reprint  tales,  the  two  last  in  the  book. 


'Preface 


Come  with  me,  ladies  and  gentlemen 
who  are  in  any  wise  weary  of  London: 
come  with  me:  and  those  that  tire  at  all 
of  the  world  we  know:  for  we  have  new 
worlds  here. 


Contents 


PAGE 

The  Bride  of  the  Man-Horse  ,  1 
Distressing  Tale  of  Thangobrind  the 

Jeweller 11 

The  House  of  the  Sphinx  ...  20 
Probable    Adventure    of    the    Three 

Literary  Men 27 

The  Injudicious  Prayers  of  Pombo  the 

Idolater 36 

The  Loot  op  Bombasharna  ...  45 
Miss    Cubbidge   and    the    Dragon    op 

Ro^L\NCE 55 

The  Quest  op  the  Queen's  Tears  .       .  62 

The  Hoard  of  the  Gibbelins  ...  74 
how  nuth  would  have  practised  his 

Art  upon  the  Gnoles  ...  84 
How  One  came,  as  was  foretold,  to  the 

City  op  Never 95 

The  Coronation  op  Mr.  Thomas  Shap  105 

Chu-bu  and  Sheemish 115 

The  Wonderful  Window   ....  124 


List  of  Illustrations 


The  Edge  of  the  World 

Frontispiece 

Zretazoola        ....       Facing 

page    1 

The  Ominous  Cough 

11 

The  House  of  the  Sphinx  . 

20 

"I  Wish  I  Knew  More  About 

the  Ways  of  Queens"  . 

54 

He  Felt  as  a  Morsel  . 

71 

There  the  Gibbelins  Lived  and 

Discreditably  Fed  . 

75 

The  Lean,  High  House  op  the 

Gnoles        .... 

94 

The  City  op  Never 

100 

The  Coronation  op  Mr.  Thomas 

Shap 

114 

Zretazoola 


The  Bride  of  the 
Man-Horse 

jn  the  morning  of  his  two 
hundred  and  fiftieth  year 
Shepperalk  the  centaur  went 
to  the  golden  coffer,  wherein 
the  treasure  of  the  centaurs 
was,  and  taking  from  it  the  hoarded 
amulet  that  his  father,  Jyshak,  in  the 
years  of  his  prime,  had  hammered  from 
mountain  gold  and  set  with  opals  bar- 
tered from  the  gnomes,  he  put  it  upon 
his  wrist,  and  said  no  word,  but  walked 
from  his  mother's  cavern.  And  he  took 
with  him  too  that  clarion  of  the  centaurs, 
that  famous  silver  horn,  that  in  its  time 
had  summoned  to  surrender  seventeen 
cities  of  Man,  and  for  twenty  years  had 
brayed  at  star-girt  walls  in  the  Siege  of 
Tholdenblarna,  the  citadel  of  the  gods, 
what    time    the    centaurs    waged    their 

1  The  Bride  of  the 

Man-  Horse 


The  Book,  of  Wonder 

fabulous  war  and  were  not  broken  by  any 
force  of  arms,  but  retreated  slowly  in  a 
cloud  of  dust  before  the  final  miracle  of 
the  gods  that  They  brought  in  Their  des- 
perate need  from  Their  ultimate  armoury. 
He  took  it  and  strode  away,  and  his 
mother  only  sighed  and  let  him  go. 

She  knew  that  to-day  he  would  not 
drink  at  the  stream  coming  down  from 
the  terraces  of  Varpa  Niger,  the  inner 
land  of  the  mountains,  that  to-day  he 
would  not  wonder  awhile  at  the  sunset 
and  afterwards  trot  back  to  the  cavern 
again  to  sleep  on  rushes  pulled  by  rivers 
that  know  not  Man.  She  knew  that  it 
was  with  him  as  it  had  been  of  old  with 
his  father,  and  with  Goom  the  father  of 
Jyshak,  and  long  ago  with  the  gods. 
Therefore  she  only  sighed  and  let  him  go. 

But  he,  coming  out  from  the  cavern 
that  was  his  home,  went  for  the  first  time 
over  the  httle  stream,  and  going  round  the 
corner  of  the  crags  saw  glittering  beneath 
him  the  mundane  plain.  And  the  wind  of 
the  autumn  that  was  gilding  the  world, 
rushing  up  the  slopes  of  the  mountain, 

The  Bride  of  the  2 

Man-  HoTse 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

beat  cold  on  his  naked  flanks.  He  raised 
his  head  and  snorted. 

^'I  am  a  man-horse  now!  "  he  shouted 
aloud;  and  leaping  from  crag  to  crag  he 
galloped  by  valley  and  chasm,  by  tor- 
rent-bed and  scar  of  avalanche,  until  he 
came  to  the  wandering  leagues  of  the 
plain,  and  left  behind  him  for  ever  the 
Athraminaurian  mountains. 

His  goal  was  Zretazoola,  the  city  of 
Sombelene.  What  legend  of  Sombelene's 
inhuman  beauty  or  of  the  wonder  of 
her  mystery  had  ever  floated  over  the 
mundane  plain  to  the  fabulous  cradle  of 
the  centaurs'  race,  the  Athraminaurian 
mountains,  I  do  not  know.  Yet  in  the 
blood  of  man  there  is  a  tide,  an  old  sea- 
current  rather,  that  is  somehow  akin  to 
the  twilight,  which  brings  him  rumours 
of  beauty  from  however  far  away,  as 
driftwood  is  found  at  sea  from  islands 
not  yet  discovered:  and  this  spring-tide 
or  current  that  visits  the  blood  of  man 
comes  from  the  fabulous  quarter  of  his 
lineage,  from  the  legendary,  the  old;  it 
takes  him  out  to  the  woodlands,  out  to 

3  The  Bride  of  the 

Man-  Horse 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

the  hills;  he  listens  to  ancient  song.  So 
it  may  be  that  Shepperalk's  fabulous 
blood  stirred  in  those  lonely  mountains 
away  at  the  edge  of  the  world  to  rumours 
that  only  the  airy  twilight  knew  and 
only  confided  secretly  to  the  bat,  for 
Shepperalk  was  more  legendary  even 
than  man.  Certain  it  was  that  he 
headed  from  the  first  for  the  city  of 
Zretazoola,  where  Sombelene  in  her 
temple  dwelt;  though  all  the  mundane 
plain,  its  rivers  and  mountains,  lay  between 
Shepperalk's  home  and  the  city  he  sought. 
When  first  the  feet  of  the  centaur 
touched  the  grass  of  that  soft  alluvial 
earth  he  blew  for  joy  upon  the  silver  horn, 
he  pranced  and  caracoled,  he  gambolled 
over  the  leagues;  pace  came  to  him  like 
a  maiden  with  a  lamp,  a  new  and  beauti- 
ful wonder;  the  wind  laughed  as  it 
passed  him.  He  put  his  head  down  low 
to  the  scent  of  the  flowers,  he  lifted  it 
up  to  be  nearer  the  unseen  stars,  he 
revelled  through  kingdoms,  took  rivers 
in  his  stride;  how  shall  I  tell  you,  ye 
that   dwell   in   cities,   how   shall   I   tell 

The  Bride  of  the  4 

Man-  Horse 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

you  what  he  felt  as  he  galloped?  He 
felt  for  strength  like  the  towers  of  Bel- 
Narana;  for  lightness  Hke  those  gossa- 
mer palaces  that  the  fairy-spider  builds 
'twixt  heaven  and  sea  along  the  coasts 
of  Zith;  for  swiftness  like  some  bird 
racing  up  from  the  morning  to  sing  in 
some  city's  spires  before  daylight  comes. 
He  was  the  sworn  companion  of  the 
wind.  For  joy  he  was  as  a  song;  the 
lightnings  of  his  legendary  sires,  the 
earlier  gods,  began  to  mix  with  his  blood; 
his  hooves  thundered.  He  came  to  the 
cities  of  men,  and  all  men  trembled,  for 
they  remembered  the  ancient  mythical 
wars,  and  now  they  dreaded  new  battles 
and  feared  for  the  race  of  man.  Not  by 
Clio  are  these  wars  recorded,  histor}^ 
does  not  know  them,  but  what  of  that? 
Not  all  of  us  have  sat  at  historians' 
feet,  but  all  have  learned  fable  and 
myth  at  their  mothers'  knees.  And 
there  were  none  that  did  not  fear  strange 
wars  when  they  saw  Shepperalk  swerve 
and  leap  along  the  public  ways.  So  he 
passed  from  city  to  city. 

5  The  Bride  of  the 

Man- Horse 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

By  night  he  lay  down  unpanting  in 
the  reeds  of  some  marsh  or  a  forest; 
before  dawn  he  rose  triumphant,  and 
hugely  drank  of  some  river  in  the  dark, 
and  splashing  out  of  it  would  trot  to 
some  high  place  to  find  the  sunrise,  and 
to  send  echoing  eastwards  the  exultant 
greetings  of  his  jubilant  horn.  And  lo! 
the  sunrise  coming  up  from  the  echoes, 
and  the  plains  new-lit  by  the  day,  and 
the  leagues  spinning  by  like  water  flung 
from  a  top,  and  that  gay  companion, 
the  loudly  laughing  wind,  and  men  and 
the  fears  of  men  and  their  little  cities; 
and,  after  that,  great  rivers  and  waste 
spaces  and  huge  new  hills,  and  then  new 
lands  beyond  them,  and  more  cities  of 
men,  and  always  the  old  companion,  the 
glorious  wind.  Kingdom  by  kingdom 
slipt  by,  and  still  his  breath  was  even. 
''It  is  a  golden  thing  to  gallop  on  good 
turf  in  one's  youth,"  said  the  young 
man-horse,  the  centaur.  ''Ha,  ha,"  said 
the  wind  of  the  hills,  and  the  winds  of 
the  plain  answered. 

Bells   pealed   in   frantic   towers,   wise 

The  Bride  of  the  Q 

Man-  HoTse 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

men  consulted  parchments,  astrologers 
sought  of  the  portent  from  the  stars,  the 
aged  made  subtle  prophecies.  ''Is  he 
not  swift?"  said  the  young.  "How  glad 
he  is,"  said  children. 

Night  after  night  brought  him  sleep, 
and  day  after  day  lit  his  gallop,  till  he 
came  to  the  lands  of  the  Athalonian  men 
who  live  by  the  edges  of  the  mundane 
plain,  and  from  them  he  came  to  the 
lands  of  legend  again  such  as  those  in 
which  he  was  cradled  on  the  other  side 
of  the  world,  and  which  fringe  the  marge 
of  the  world  and  mix  with  the  twilight. 
And  there  a  mighty  thought  came  into 
his  untired  heart,  for  he  knew  that  he 
neared  Zretazoola  now,  the  city  of 
Sombelene. 

It  was  late  in  the  day  when  he  neared 
it,  and  clouds  coloured  with  evening 
rolled  low  on  the  plain  before  him;  he 
galloped  on  into  their  golden  mist,  and 
when  it  hid  from  his  eyes  the  sight  of 
things,  the  dreams  in  his  heart  awoke 
and  romantically  he  pondered  all  those 
rumours  that  used  to  come  to  him  from 

7  The  Bride  of  the 

Man-  HoTS^ 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

Sombelene,  because  of  the  fellowship  of 
fabulous  things.  She  dwelt  (said  eve- 
ning secretly  to  the  bat)  in  a  little  temple 
by  a  lone  lake-shore.  A  grove  of  cy- 
presses screened  her  from  the  city,  from 
Zretazoola  of  the  climbing  ways.  And 
opposite  her  temple  stood  her  tomb,  her 
sad  lake-sepulchre  with  open  door,  lest 
her  amazing  beauty  and  the  centuries  of 
her  youth  should  ever  give  rise  to  the 
heresy  among  men  that  lovely  Som- 
belene was  immortal :  for  only  her  beauty 
and  her  lineage  were  divine. 

Her  father  had  been  half  centaur  and 
half  god;  her  mother  was  the  child  of  a 
desert  lion  and  that  sphinx  that  watches 
the  pyramids;  —  she  was  more  mystical 
than  Woman. 

Her  beauty  was  as  a  dream,  was  as 
a  song;  the  one  dream  of  a  lifetime 
dreamed  on  enchanted  dews,  the  one 
song  sung  to  some  city  by  a  deathless 
bird  blown  far  from  his  native  coasts  by 
storm  in  Paradise.  Dawn  after  dawn  on 
mountains  of  romance  or  twihght  after 
twilight  could  never  equal  her  beauty; 

The  Bride  of  the  g 

Mon- Horse 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

all  the  glow-worms  had  not  the  secret 
among  them  nor  all  the  stars  of  night; 
poets  had  never  sung  it  nor  evening 
guessed  its  meaning;  the  morning  envied 
it,  it  was  hidden  from  lovers. 

She  was  unwed,  unwooed. 

The  lions  came  not  to  woo  her  be- 
cause they  feared  her  strength,  and  the 
gods  dared  not  love  her  because  they 
knew  she  must  die. 

This  was  what  evening  had  whispered 
to  the  bat,  this  was  the  dream  in  the 
heart  of  Shepperalk  as  he  cantered  blind 
through  the  mist.  And  suddenly  there  at 
his  hooves  in  the  dark  of  the  plain  ap- 
peared the  cleft  in  the  legendary  lands, 
and  Zretazoola  sheltering  in  the  cleft, 
and  sunning  herself  in  the  evening. 

Swiftly  and  craftily  he  bounded  down 
by  the  upper  end  of  the  cleft,  and  enter- 
ing Zretazoola  by  the  outer  gate  which 
looks  out  sheer  on  the  stars,  he  galloped 
suddenly  down  the  narrow  streets.  Many 
that  rushed  out  on  to  balconies  as  he 
went  clattering  by,  many  that  put  their 
heads  from  glittering  windows,  are  told 

9  The  Bride  of  the 

Man-  HoTse 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

of  in  olden  song.  Shepperalk  did  not 
tarry  to  give  greetings  or  to  answer 
challenges  from  martial  towers,  he  was 
down  through  the  earthward  gateway 
like  the  thunderbolt  of  his  sires,  and, 
like  Leviathan  who  has  leapt  at  an 
eagle,  he  surged  into  the  water  between 
temple  and  tomb. 

He  galloped  with  half-shut  eyes  up 
the  temple-steps,  and,  only  seeing  dimly 
through  his  lashes,  seized  Sombelene  by 
the  hair,  undazzled  as  yet  by  her  beauty, 
and  so  haled  her  away;  and,  leaping 
with  her  over  the  floorless  chasm  where 
the  waters  of  the  lake  fall  unremembered 
away  into  a  hole  in  the  world,  took  her 
we  know  not  where,  to  be  her  slave  for 
all  those  centuries  that  are  allowed  to 
his  race. 

Three  blasts  he  gave  as  he  went  upon 
that  silver  horn  that  is  the  world-old 
treasure  of  the  centaurs.  These  were  his 
wedding  bells. 


The  Bride  of  the  JQ 

Man-  Horse 


The  Omixous  Cough 


Distressing  Tale 

of  Thangohrind 
the  Jeweller 

'-'^hen  Thangobrind  the  jewel- 
ler heard  the  ominous 
cough,  he  turned  at  once 
upon  that  narrow  way.  A 
thief  was  he,  of  very  high 
repute,  being  patronised  by  the  lofty  and 
elect,  for  he  stole  nothing  smaller  than 
the  Moomoo's  egg,  and  in  all  his  hfe 
stole  only  four  kinds  of  stone  —  the  ruby, 
the  diamond,  the  emerald,  and  the  sap- 
phire; and,  as  jewellers  go,  his  honesty 
was  great.  Now  there  was  a  Merchant 
Prince  who  had  come  to  Thangobrind 
and  had  offered  his  daughter's  soul  for 
the  diamond  that  is  larger  than  the 
human  head  and  was  to  be  found  on 
the  lap  of  the  spider-idol,  Hlo-hlo,  in  his 

11  Distressing  Tale  of 

Thangobrind  the  Jeweller 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

temple  of  Moung-ga-ling;  for  he  had 
heard  that  Thangobrind  was  a  thief  to 
be  trusted. 

Thangobrind  oiled  his  body  and 
slipped  out  of  his  shop,  and  went  secretly 
through  byways,  and  got  as  far  as  Snarp, 
before  anybody  knew  that  he  was  out 
on  business  again  or  missed  his  sword 
from  its  place  under  the  counter.  Thence 
he  moved  onlj-  by  night,  hiding  by  day 
and  rubbing  the  edges  of  his  sword, 
which  he  called  Mouse  because  it  was 
swift  and  nimble.  The  jeweller  had 
subtle  methods  of  travelling;  nobody  saw 
him  cross  the  plains  of  Zid;  nobody  saw 
him  come  to  Mursk  or  Tlun.  0,  but  he 
loved  shadows!  Once  the  moon  peeping 
out  unexpectedly  from  a  tempest  had 
betrayed  an  ordinary  jeweller;  not  so 
did  it  undo  Thangobrind:  the  watchmen 
only  saw  a  crouching  shape  that  snarled 
and  laughed:  '^  'Tis  but  a  hyena,"  they 
said.  Once  in  the  city  of  Ag  one  of  the 
guardians  seized  him,  but  Thangobrind 
was  oiled  and  slipped  from  his  hand; 
you  scarcely  heard  his  bare  feet  patter 

Distressing  Tale  of  \2 

'1  hangobrind  the  Jeweller 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

away.  He  knew  that  the  Merchant 
Prince  awaited  his  return,  his  little  eyes 
open  all  night  and  glittering  with  greed; 
he  knew  how  his  daughter  lay  chained 
up  and  screaming  night  and  day.  Ah, 
Thangobrind  knew.  And  had  he  not 
been  out  on  business  he  had  almost  al- 
lowed himself  one  or  two  little  laughs. 
But  business  was  business,  and  the  dia- 
mond that  he  sought  still  lay  on  the 
lap  of  Hlo-hlo,  where  it  had  been  for 
the  last  two  million  years  since  Hlo-hlo 
created  the  world  and  gave  unto  it  all 
things  except  that  precious  stone  called 
Dead  Man's  Diamond.  The  jewel  was 
often  stolen,  but  it  had  a  knack  of  com- 
ing back  again  to  the  lap  of  Hlo-hlo. 
Thangobrind  knew  this,  but  he  was  no 
common  jeweller  and  hoped  to  outwit 
Hlo-hlo,  perceiving  not  the  trend  of  am- 
bition and  lust  and  that  they  are  vanity. 
How  nimbly  he  threaded  his  way 
through  the  pits  of  Snood !  —  now  like  a 
botanist,  scrutinising  the  ground;  now 
like  a  dancer,  leaping  from  crumbling 
c:'ges.    It  was  quite  dark  when  he  went 

X3  Distressing  Tale  of 

Thangobrind  the  Jeweller 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

by  the  towers  of  Tor,  where  archers  shoot 
ivory  arrows  at  strangers  lest  any  for- 
eigner should  alter  their  laws,  which  are 
bad,  but  not  to  be  altered  by  mere 
aliens.  At  night  they  shoot  by  the  sound 
of  the  strangers'  feet.  0,  Thangobrind, 
Thangobrind,  was  ever  a  jeweller  like 
you!  He  dragged  two  stones  behind  him 
by  long  cords,  and  at  these  the  archers 
shot.  Tempting  indeed  was  the  snare 
that  they  set  in  Woth,  the  emeralds 
loose-set  in  the  city's  gate;  but  Thango- 
brind discerned  the  golden  cord  that 
climbed  the  wall  from  each  and  the 
weights  that  would  topple  upon  him  if 
he  touched  one,  and  so  he  left  them, 
though  he  left  them  weeping,  and  at  last 
came  to  Theth.  There  all  men  worship 
Hlo-hlo;  though  they  are  willing  to  be- 
lieve in  other  gods,  as  missionaries  attest, 
but  only  as  creatures  of  the  chase  for 
the  hunting  of  Hlo-hlo,  who  wears  Their 
halos,  so  these  people  say,  on  golden 
hooks  along  his  hunting-belt.  And  from 
Theth  he  came  to  the  city  of  Moung  and 
the  temple  of  Moung-ga-ling,  and  entered 

Distressing  Tale  of  14 

Thannobrind  the  Jeweller 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

and  saw  the  spider-idol,  Hlo-hlo,  sitting 
there  with  Dead  Man's  Diamond  glitter- 
ing on  his  lap,  and  looking  for  all  the 
world  like  a  full  moon,  but  a  full  moon 
seen  by  a  lunatic  who  had  slept  too  long 
in  its  rays,  for  there  was  in  Dead  Man's 
Diamond  a  certain  sinister  look  and  a 
boding  of  things  to  happen  that  are 
better  not  mentioned  here.  The  face  of 
the  spider-idol  was  lit  by  that  fatal 
gem;  there  was  no  other  light.  In  spite 
of  his  shocking  limbs  and  that  demoniac 
body,  his  face  was  serene  and  apparently 
unconscious. 

A  little  fear  came  into  the  mind  of 
Thangobrind  the  jeweller,  a  passing 
tremor  —  no  more ;  business  was  business 
and  he  hoped  for  the  best.  Thangobrind 
offered  honey  to  Hlo-hlo  and  prostrated 
himself  before  him.  Oh,  he  was  cunning! 
When  the  priests  stole  out  of  the  dark- 
ness to  lap  up  the  honey  they  were 
stretched  senseless  on  the  temple  floor, 
for  there  was  a  drug  in  the  honey  that 
was  offered  to  Hlo-hlo.  And  Thango- 
brind the  jeweller  picked  Dead  Man's 

15  Distressing  Tale  of 

Thangobrind  the  Jeweller 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

Diamond  up  and  put  it  on  his  shoulder 
and  trudged  away  from  the  shrine;  and 
Hlo-hlo  the  spider-idol  said  nothing  at 
all,  but  he  laughed  softly  as  the  jeweller 
shut  the  door.  When  the  priests  awoke 
out  of  the  grip  of  the  drug  that  was 
offered  with  the  honey  to  Hlo-hlo,  they 
rushed  to  a  little  secret  room  with  an 
outlet  on  the  stars  and  cast  a  horoscope 
of  the  thief.  Something  that  they  saw 
in  the  horoscope  seemed  to  satisfy  the 
priests. 

It  was  not  like  Thangobrind  to  go 
back  by  the  road  by  which  he  had  come. 
No,  he  went  by  another  road,  even 
though  it  led  to  the  narrow  way,  night- 
house  and  spider-forest. 

The  city  of  Moung  went  towering  up 
behind  him,  balcony  above  balcony, 
eclipsing  half  the  stars,  as  he  trudged 
away  with  his  diamond.  He  was  not  easy 
as  he  trudged  away.  Though  when  a 
soft  pittcring  as  of  velvet  feet  arose 
behind  him  he  refused  to  acknowledge 
that  it  might  be  what  he  feared,  yet  the 
instincts  of  his  trade  told  him  that  it  is 

Distressing  Tale  cf  IQ 

Thangobrind  the  Jeweller 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

not  well  when  any  noise  whatever  follows 
a  diamond  by  night,  and  this  was  one 
of  the  largest  that  had  ever  come  to  him 
in  the  way  of  business.  When  he  came 
to  the  narrow  way  that  leads  to  spider- 
forest,  Dead  Man's  Diamond  feeling 
cold  and  heavy,  and  the  velvety  footfall 
seeming  fearfully  close,  the  jeweller 
stopped  and  almost  hesitated.  He  looked 
behind  him;  there  was  nothing  there. 
He  listened  attentively;  there  was  no 
sound  now.  Then  he  thought  of  the 
screams  of  the  Merchant  Prince's  daugh- 
ter, whose  soul  was  the  diamond's  price, 
and  smiled  and  went  stoutly  on.  There 
watched  him,  apathetically,  over  the 
narrow  way,  that  grim  and  dubious 
woman  whose  house  is  the  Night.  Than- 
gobrind,  hearing  no  longer  the  sound  of 
suspicious  feet,  felt  easier  now.  He  was 
all  but  come  to  the  end  of  the  narrow 
way,  when  the  woman  listlessly  uttered 
that  ominous  cough. 

The  cough  was  too  full  of  meaning  to 
be  disregarded.  Thangobrind  turned 
round  and  saw  at  once  what  he  feared. 

17  Distressing  Tele  of 

Thangobrind  the  Jeweller 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

The  spider-idol  had  not  stayed  at  home. 
The  jeweller  put  his  diamond  gently 
upon  the  ground  and  drew  his  sword 
called  Mouse.  And  then  began  that 
famous  fight  upon  the  narrow  way  in 
which  the  grim  old  woman  whose  house 
was  Night  seemed  to  take  so  little  inter- 
est. To  the  spider-idol  you  saw  at  once 
it  was  all  a  horrible  joke.  To  the  jeweller 
it  was  grim  earnest.  He  fought  and 
panted  and  was  pushed  back  slowly 
along  the  narrow  way,  but  he  wounded 
Hlo-hlo  all  the  while  with  terrible  long 
gashes  all  over  his  deep,  soft  body  till 
Mouse  was  slimy  with  blood.  But  at 
last  the  persistent  laughter  of  Hlo-hlo 
was  too  much  for  the  jeweller's  nerves, 
and,  once  more  wounding  his  demoniac 
foe,  he  sank  aghast  and  exhausted  by  the 
door  of  the  house  called  Night  at  the 
feet  of  the  grim  old  woman,  who  having 
uttered  once  that  ominous  cough  inter- 
fered no  further  with  the  course  of 
events.  And  there  carried  Thangobrind 
the  jeweller  away  those  whose  duty  it 
was,  to  the  house  where  the  two  men 

Distressing  Tale  of  Ig 

Thangobrind  the  Jeweller 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

hang,  and  taking  down  from  his  hook 
the  left-hand  one  of  the  two,  they  put 
that  venturous  jeweller  in  his  place;  so 
that  there  fell  on  him  the  doom  that  he 
feared,  as  all  men  know  though  it  is  so 
long  since,  and  there  abated  somewhat 
the  ire  of  the  envious  gods. 

And  the  only  daughter  of  the  Mer- 
chant Prince  felt  so  little  gratitude  for 
this  great  deliverance  that  she  took  to 
respectability  of  a  militant  kind,  and 
became  aggressively  dull,  and  called  her 
home  the  English  Riviera,  and  had 
platitudes  worked  in  worsted  upon  her 
tea-cosy,  and  in  the  end  never  died,  but 
passed  away  at  her  residence. 


19  Distressing  Tale  of 

Thangobrind  the  Jeweller 


The  House  of 
the  Sphinx 

?hen  I  came  to  the  House 
of  the  Sphinx  it  was  al- 
I  ready  dark.  They  made 
me  eagerly  welcome.  And 
I,  in  spite  of  the  deed,  was 
glad  of  any  shelter  from  ^hat  ominous 
wood.  I  saw  at  once  that  there  had 
been  a  deed,  although  a  cloak  did  all 
that  a  cloak  may  do  to  conceal  it.  The 
mere  uneasiness  of  the  welcome  made 
me  suspect  that  cloak. 

The  Sphinx  was  moody  and  silent.  I 
had  not  come  to  pry  into  the  secrets  of 
Eternity  nor  to  investigate  the  Sphinx's 
private  life,  and  so  had  httle  to  say  and 
few  questions  to  ask;  but  to  whatever  I 
did  say  she  remained  morosely  indiffer- 
ent. It  was  clear  that  either  she  sus- 
pected me  of  being  in  search  of  the 
secrets  of  one  of  her  gods,  or  of  being 


The  House  of 
the  Si)hinx 


20 


The  Hoi'se  of  the  Sphinx 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

boldly  inquisitive  about  her  traffic  with 
Time,  or  else  she  was  darkly  absorbed 
with  brooding  upon  the  deed. 

I  saw  soon  enough  that  there  was 
another  than  me  to  welcome;  I  saw  it 
from  the  hurried  way  that  they  glanced 
from  the  door  to  the  deed  and  back  to 
the  door  again.  And  it  was  clear  that 
the  welcome  was  to  be  a  bolted  door. 
But  such  bolts,  and  such  a  door!  Rust 
and  decay  and  fungus  had  been  there  far 
too  long,  and  it  was  not  a  barrier  any 
longer  that  would  keep  out  even  a  de- 
termined wolf.  And  it  seemed  to  be 
something  worse  than  a  wolf  that  they 
feared. 

A  little  later  on  I  gathered  from  what 
they  said  that  some  imperious  and 
ghastly  thing  was  looking  for  the  Sphinx, 
and  that  something  that  had  happened 
had  made  its  arrival  certain.  It  ap- 
peared that  they  had  slapped  the  Sphinx 
to  vex  her  out  of  her  apathy  in  order 
that  she  should  pray  to  one  of  her  gods, 
whom  she  had  littered  in  the  house  of 
,  Time;  but  her  moody  silence  was  invinci- 

21  The  House  of 

the  Sphinx 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

ble,  and  her  apathy  Oriental,  ever 
since  the  deed  had  happened.  And  when 
they  found  that  they  could  not  make 
her  pray,  there  was  nothing  for  them  to 
do  but  to  pay  little  useless  attentions  to 
the  rusty  lock  of  the  door,  and  to  look 
at  the  deed  and  wonder,  and  even  pre- 
tend to  hope,  and  to  say  that  after  all 
it  might  not  bring  that  destined  thing 
from  the  forest,  which  no  one  named. 

It  may  be  said  I  had  chosen  a  grue- 
some house,  but  not  if  I  had  described 
the  forest  from  which  I  came,  and  I 
was  in  need  of  any  spot  wherein  I  could 
rest  my  mind  from  the  thought  of  it. 

I  wondered  very  much  what  thing 
would  come  from  the  forest  on  account 
of  the  deed;  and  having  seen  that  forest 
—  as  you,  gentle  reader,  hav^e  not  —  I 
had  the  advantage  of  knowing  that  any- 
thing might  come.  It  was  useless  to  ask 
the  Sphinx  —  she  seldom  reveals  things, 
like  her  paramour  Time  (the  gods  take 
after  her),  and  while  this  mood  was  on 
her,  rebuff  was  certain.  So  I  quietly 
began  to  oil  the  lock  of  the  door.   And  as 

The  House  of  22 

the  Sphinx 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

soon  as  they  saw  this  simple  act  I  won 
their  confidence.  It  was  not  that  my 
work  was  of  any  use  —  it  should  have 
been  done  long  before;  but  they  saw  that 
my  interest  was  given  for  the  moment 
to  the  thing  that  they  thought  vital. 
They  clustered  round  me  then.  They 
asked  me  what  I  thought  of  the  door, 
and  whether  I  had  seen  better,  and 
whether  I  had  seen  worse;  and  I  told 
them  about  all  the  doors  I  knew,  and 
said  that  the  doors  of  the  baptistery  in 
Florence  were  better  doors,  and  the 
doors  made  by  a  certain  firm  of  builders 
in  London  were  worse.  And  then  I  asked 
them  what  it  was  that  was  coming  after 
the  Sphinx  because  of  the  deed.  And  at 
first  they  would  not  say,  and  I  stopped 
oiHng  the  door;  and  then  they  said  that 
it  was  the  arch-inquisitor  of  the  forest, 
who  is  investigator  and  avenger  of  all 
silvestrian  things;  and  from  all  that  they 
said  about  him  it  seemed  to  me  that  this 
person  was  quite  white,  and  was  a  kind 
of  madness  that  would  settle  down  quite 
blankly  upon  the  place,  a  kind  of  mist 

23  The  House  of 

the  Sphinx 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

in  which  reason  could  not  live;  and  it 
was  the  fear  of  this  that  made  them 
fumble  nervously  at  the  lock  of  that 
rotten  door;  but  with  the  Sphinx  it  was 
not  so  much  fear  as  sheer  prophecy. 

The  hope  that  they  tried  to  hope  was 
well  enough  in  its  way,  but  I  did  not 
share  it;  it  was  clear  that  the  thing  that 
they  feared  was  the  corollary  of  the  deed 
—  one  saw  that  more  by  the  resignation 
upon  the  face  of  the  Sphinx  than  by  their 
sorry  anxiety  for  the  door. 

The  wind  soughed,  and  the  great  ta- 
pers flared,  and  their  obvious  fear  and  the 
silence  of  the  Sphinx  grew  more  than 
ever  a  part  of  the  atmosphere,  and  bats 
went  restlessly  through  the  gloom  of 
the  wind  that  beat  the  tapers  low. 

Then  a  few  things  screamed  far  off, 
then  a  little  nearer,  and  something  was 
coming  towards  us,  laughing  hideously. 
I  hastily  gave  a  prod  to  the  door  that 
they  guarded;  my  finger  sank  right  into 
the  mouldering  wood  —  there  was  not  a 
chance  of  holding  it.  I  had  not  leisure 
to  observe  their  fright;  I  thought  of  the 

The  House  of  24 

the  Sphinx 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

back-door,  for  the  forest  was  better  than 
this;  only  the  Sphinx  was  absolutely 
calm,  her  prophecy  was  made  and  she 
seemed  to  have  seen  her  doom,  so  that 
no  new  thing  could  perturb  her. 

But  by  mouldering  rungs  of  ladders 
as  old  as  Man,  by  slippery  edges  of  the 
dreaded  abyss,  with  an  ominous  dizzi- 
ness about  my  heart  and  a  feeling  of 
horror  in  the  soles  of  my  feet,  I  clambered 
from  tower  to  tower  till  I  found  the  door 
that  I  sought;  and  it  opened  on  to  one 
of  the  upper  branches  of  a  huge  and 
sombre  pine,  down  which  I  climbed  on 
to  the  floor  of  the  forest.  And  I  was  glad 
to  be  back  again  in  the  forest  from  which 
I  had  fled. 

And  the  Sphinx  in  her  menaced  house 
—  I  know  not  how  she  fared  —  whether 
she  gazes  for  ever,  disconsolate,  at  the 
deed,  remembering  only  in  her  smitten 
mind,  at  which  little  boys  now  leer,  that 
she  once  knew  well  those  things  at  which 
man  stands  aghast;  or  whether  in  the  end 
she  crept  away,  and  clambering  horribly 
from  abyss  to  abyss,   came  at  last  to 

25  The  House  of 

the  Sphinx 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

higher  things,  and  is  wise  and  eternal 
still.  For  who  knows  of  madness  whether 
it  is  divine  or  whether  it  be  of  the  pit? 


The  House  of  26 

the  Sphinx 


Probable  Adventure 
of  the  Three 
Literary  Men 

l^hen  the  nomads  came  to 
El  Lola  they  had  no  more 
I  songs,  and  the  question  of 
stealing  the  golden  box 
arose  in  all  its  magnitude. 
On  the  one  hand,  many  had  sought  the 
golden  box,  the  receptacle  (as  the  Aethi- 
opians  know)  of  poems  of  fabulous  value; 
and  their  doom  is  still  the  common  talk 
of  Arabia.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was 
lonely  to  sit  round  the  camp-fire  by  night 
with  no  new  songs. 

It  was  the  tribe  of  Heth  that  discussed 
these  things  one  evening  upon  the  plains 
below  the  peak  of  Mluna.  Their  native 
land  was  the  track  across  the  world  of 
immemorial   wanderers;   and   there   was 

27  Probable  Adventure  of  the 

Three  Literary  Men 


The  Book  o/  Wonder 

trouble  among  the  elders  of  the  nomads 
because  there  were  no  new  songs;  while, 
untouched  by  human  trouble,  untouched 
as  yet  by  the  night  that  was  hiding  the 
plains  away,  the  peak  of  Mluna,  calm  in 
the  after-glow,  looked  on  the  Dubious 
Land.  And  it  was  there  on  the  plain  upon 
the  known  side  of  Mluna,  just  as  the 
evening  star  came  mouse-like  into  view 
and  the  flames  of  the  camp-fire  lifted 
their  lonely  plumes  uncheered  bj^  any 
song  that  that  rash  scheme  was  hastily 
planned  by  the  nomads  which  the  world 
has  named  The  Quest  of  the  Golden 
Box. 

No  measure  of  wiser  precaution  could 
the  elders  of  the  nomads  have  taken  than 
to  choose  for  their  thief  that  very  Slith, 
that  identical  thief  that  (even  as  I  write) 
in  how  many  school-rooms  governesses 
teach  stole  a  march  on  the  King  of 
Westalia.  Yet  the  weight  of  the  box  was 
such  that  others  had  to  accompany  him, 
and  Sippy  and  Slorg  were  no  more  agile 
thieves  than  may  be  found  today  among 
vendors  of  the  antique. 

Probable  Adventure  of  the  28 

Three  Literary  Men 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

So  over  the  shoulder  of  Mluna  these 
three  climbed  next  day  and  slept  as  well 
as  they  might  among  its  snows  rather 
than  risk  a  night  in  the  woods  of  the 
Dubious  Land.  And  the  morning  came 
up  radiant  and  the  birds  were  full  of 
song,  but  the  forest  underneath  and  the 
waste  beyond  it  and  the  bare  and  omi- 
nous crags  all  wore  the  appearance  of  an 
unuttered  threat. 

Though  Slith  had  an  experience  of 
twenty  years  of  theft,  yet  he  said  little; 
only  if  one  of  the  others  made  a  stone 
roll  with  his  foot,  or,  later  on  in  the 
forest,  if  one  of  them  stepped  on  a  twig, 
he  whispered  sharply  to  them  always  the 
same  words:  ''That  is  not  business." 
He  knew  that  he  could  not  make  them 
better  thieves  during  a  two  days'  jour- 
ney, and  whatever  doubts  he  had  he 
interfered  no  further. 

From  the  shoulder  of  Mluna  they 
dropped  into  the  clouds,  and  from  the 
clouds  to  the  forest,  to  whose  native 
beasts,  as  well  the  three  thieves  knew, 
all  flesh  was  meat,  whether  it  were  the 

29  Probable  Adventure  of  the 

Three  Literary  Men 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

flesh  of  fish  or  man.  There  the  thieves 
drew  idolatrously  from  their  pockets 
each  one  a  separate  god  and  prayed 
for  protection  in  the  unfortunate  wood, 
and  hoped  therefrom  for  a  threefold 
chance  of  escape,  since  if  anything  should 
eat  one  of  them  it  were  certain  to  eat 
them  all,  and  they  confided  that  the  corol- 
lary might  be  true  and  all  should  escape 
if  one  did.  Whether  one  of  these  gods 
was  propitious  and  awake,  or  whether 
all  of  the  three,  or  whether  it  was  chance 
that  brought  them  through  the  forest 
unmouthed  by  detestable  beasts,  none 
knoweth;  but  certainly  neither  the  emis- 
saries of  the  god  that  most  they  feared, 
nor  the  wrath  of  the  topical  god  of  that 
ominous  place,  brought  their  doom  to 
the  three  adventurers  there  or  then.  And 
so  it  was  that  they  came  to  Rumbly 
Heath,  in  the  heart  of  the  Dubious  Land, 
whose  stormy  hillocks  were  the  ground- 
swell  and  the  after-wash  of  the  earth- 
quake lulled  for  a  while.  Something  so 
huge  that  it  seemed  unfair  to  man  that 
it  should  move  so  softly  stalked  splen- 

Probable  Adventure  of  the  30 

Three  Literary  Men 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

didly  by  them,  and  only  so  barely  did 
they  escape  its  notice  that  one  word 
rang  and  echoed  through  their  three 
imaginations  —  ''If  —  if  —  if."  And 
when  this  danger  was  at  last  gone  by 
they  moved  cautiously  on  again  and 
presently  saw  the  little  harmless  mipt, 
half  fairy  and  half  gnome,  giving  shrill 
contented  squeaks  on  the  edge  of  the 
world.  And  they  edged  away  unseen, 
for  they  said  that  the  inquisitiveness  of 
the  mipt  had  become  fabulous,  and  that, 
harmless  as  he  was,  he  had  a  bad 
way  with  secrets;  yet  they  probably 
loathed  the  way  that  he  nuzzles  dead 
white  bones,  and  would  not  admit  their 
loathing,  for  it  does  not  become  adven- 
turers to  care  who  eats  their  bones.  Be 
this  as  it  may,  they  edged  away  from  the 
mipt,  and  came  almost  at  once  to  the 
wizened  tree,  the  goal-post  of  their  ad- 
venture, and  knew  that  beside  them  was 
the  crack  in  the  world  and  the  bridge 
from  Bad  to  Worse,  and  that  under- 
neath them  stood  the  rocky  house  of 
Owner  of  the  Box. 

31  Probable  Adventure  of  the 

Three  Literary  Men 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

This  was  their  simple  plan :  to  slip  into 
the  corridor  in  the  upper  cliff;  to  run 
softly  down  it  (of  course  with  naked 
feet)  under  the  warning  to  travellers 
that  is  graven  upon  stone,  which  inter- 
preters take  to  be  ''It  Is  Better  Not"; 
not  to  touch  the  berries  that  are  there 
for  a  purpose,  on  the  right  side  going 
down;  and  so  to  come  to  the  guardian 
on  his  pedestal  who  had  slept  for  a 
thousand  years  and  should  be  sleeping 
still;  and  go  in  through  the  open  window. 
One  man  was  to  wait  outside  by  the 
crack  in  the  World  until  the  others  came 
out  with  the  golden  box,  and,  should 
they  cry  for  help,  he  was  to  threaten  at 
once  to  unfasten  the  iron  clamp  that  kept 
the  crack  together.  When  the  box  was 
secured  they  were  to  travel  all  night 
and  all  the  following  day,  until  the 
cloud-banks  that  wrapped  the  slopes  of 
Mluna  were  well  between  them  and 
Owner  of  the  Box. 

The  door  in  the  cliff  was  open.  They 
passed  without  a  murmur  down  the  cold 
steps,   Slith  leading  them  all  the  way. 

Probable  Adventure  of  the  32 

Three  Literary  Men 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

A  glance  of  longing,  no  more,  each  gave 
to  the  beautiful  berries.  The  guardian 
upon  his  pedestal  was  still  asleep.  Slorg 
climbed  by  a  ladder,  that  Slith  knew 
where  to  find,  to  the  iron  clamp  across 
the  crack  in  the  World,  and  waited  be- 
side it  with  a  chisel  in  his  hand,  listen- 
ing closely  for  anything  untoward,  while 
his  friends  slipped  into  the  house;  and 
no  sound  came.  And  presently  SUth  and 
Sippy  found  the  golden  box:  everything 
seemed  happening  as  they  had  planned, 
it  only  remained  to  see  if  it  was  the 
right  one  and  to  escape  with  it  from  that 
dreadful  place.  Under  the  shelter  of 
the  pedestal,  so  near  to  the  guardian 
that  they  could  feel  his  warmth,  which 
paradoxically  had  the  effect  of  chilling 
the  blood  of  the  boldest  of  them,  they 
smashed  the  emerald  hasp  and  opened 
the  golden  box;  and  there  they  read  by 
the  light  of  ingenious  sparks  which  Shth 
knew  how  to  contrive,  and  even  this 
poor  hght  they  hid  with  their  bodies. 
What  was  their  joy,  even  at  that  perilous 
moment,    as   they   lurked   between   the 

33  Probable  Adventure  of  the 

Three  Literary  Men 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

guardian  and  the  abyss,  to  find  that  the 
box  contained  fifteen  peerless  odes  in  the 
alcaic  form,  five  sonnets  that  were  by 
far  the  most  beautiful  in  the  world,  nine 
ballads  in  the  manner  of  Provence  that 
had  no  equal  in  the  treasuries  of  man,  a 
poem  addressed  to  a  moth  in  twenty- 
eight  perfect  stanzas,  a  piece  of  blank 
verse  of  over  a  hundred  lines  on  a  level 
not  yet  known  to  have  been  attained  by 
man,  as  well  as  fifteen  lyrics  on  which 
no  merchant  would  dare  to  set  a  price. 
They  would  have  read  them  again,  for 
they  gave  happy  tears  to  a  man  and 
memories  of  dear  things  done  in  infancy, 
and  brought  sweet  voices  from  far  sepul- 
chres; but  Slith  pointed  imperiously  to 
the  way  by  which  they  had  come,  and 
extinguished  the  light;  and  Slorg  and 
Sippy  sighed,  then  took  the  box. 

The  guardian  still  slept  the  sleep  that 
survived  a  thousand  years. 

As  they  came  away  they  saw  that 
indulgent  chair  close  by  the  edge  of  the 
World  in  which  Owner  of  the  Box  had 
lately  sat  reading  selfishly  and  alone  the 

Probable  Adventure  of  the  34 

Three  Literary  Men 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

most  beautiful  songs  and  verses  that 
poet  ever  dreamed. 

They  came  in  silence  to  the  foot  of 
the  stairs;  and  then  it  befell  that  as  they 
drew  near  safety,  in  the  night's  most 
secret  hour,  some  hand  in  an  upper 
chamber  lit  a  shocking  light,  lit  it  and 
made  no  sound. 

For  a  moment  it  might  have  been  an 
ordinary  light,  fatal  as  even  that  could 
very  well  be  at  such  a  moment  as  this; 
but  when  it  began  to  follow  them  like 
an  eye  and  to  grow  redder  and  redder 
as  it  watched  them,  then  even  optimism 
despaired. 

And  Sippy  very  unwisely  attempted 
flight,  and  Slorg  even  as  unwisely  tried 
to  hide;  but  Slith,  knowing  well  why 
that  light  was  lit  in  that  secret  upper 
chamber  and  who  it  was  that  lit  it,  leaped 
over  the  edge  of  the  World  and  is  falling 
from  us  still  through  the  unreverberate 
blackness  of  the  abyss. 


35  Probable  Adventure  of  the 

Three  Literary  Men 


The 

Injudicious  Prayers 

ofPombo  the  Idolater 

^■^^ombo  the  idolater  had 
prayed  to  Ammuz  a  simple 
prayer,  a  necessary  prayer, 
such  as  even  an  idol  of 
ivory  could  very  easily 
grant,  and  Ammuz  had  not  immediately 
granted  it.  Pombo  had  therefore  prayed 
to  Tharma  for  the  overthrow  of  Ammuz, 
an  idol  friendly  to  Tharma,  and  in  doing 
this  offended  against  the  etiquette  of 
the  gods.  Tharma  refused  to  grant  the 
little  prayer.  Pombo  prayed  frantically 
to  all  the  gods  of  idolatry,  for  though  it 
was  a  simple  matter,  yet  it  was  very 
necessary  to  a  man.  And  gods  that  were 
older  than  Ammuz  rejected  the  prayers 
of   Pombo,    and    even   gods   that   were 

The  Injudicious  Prayers  of  3Q 

Pombo  the  Idolater 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

younger  and  therefore  of  greater  repute. 
He  prayed  to  them  one  by  one,  and  they 
all  refused  to  hear  him;  nor  at  first  did 
he  think  at  all  of  that  subtle,  divine  eti- 
quette against  which  he  had  offended. 
It  occurred  to  him  all  at  once  as  he  prayed 
to  his  fiftieth  idol,  a  little  green-jade 
god  whom  the  Chinese  know,  that  all  the 
idols  were  in  league  against  him.  When 
Pombo  discovered  this  he  resented  his 
birth  bitterly,  and  made  lamentation  and 
alleged  that  he  was  lost.  He  might  have 
been  seen  then  in  any  part  of  London 
haunting  curiosity-shops  and  places  where 
they  sold  idols  of  ivory  or  of  stone,  for 
he  dwelt  in  London  with  others  of  his 
race  though  he  was  born  in  Burmah 
among  those  who  hold  Ganges  holy. 
On  drizzly  evenings  of  November's  worst 
his  haggard  face  could  be  seen  in  the 
glow  of  some  shop  pressed  close  against 
the  glass,  where  he  would  suppHcate  some 
calm  cross-legged  idol  till  policemen 
moved  him  on.  And  after  closing  hours 
back  he  would  go  to  his  dingy  room,  in 
that  part  of  our  capital  where  English 

37  Th2  Injudicious  Prayers  of 

Pombo  the  Idolater 


rr^ 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

is  seldom  spoken,  to  supplicate  little 
idols  of  his  own.  And  when  Pombo's 
simple,  necessary  prayer  was  equally 
refused  by  the  idols  of  museums,  auction- 
rooms,  shops,  then  he  took  counsel  with 
himself  and  purchased  incense  and  burned 
it  in  a  brazier  before  his  own  cheap 
little  idols,  and  played  the  while  upon  an 
instrument  such  as  that  wherewith  men 
charm  snakes.  And  still  the  idols  clung 
to  their  etiquette. 

Whether  Pombo  knew  about  this  eti- 
quette and  considered  it  frivolous  in  the 
face  of  his  need,  or  whether  his  need, 
now  grown  desperate,  unhinged  his  mind, 
I  know  not,  but  Pombo  the  idolater  took 
a  stick  and  suddenly  turned  iconoclast. 

Pombo  the  iconoclast  immediately  left 
his  house,  leaving  his  idols  to  be  swept 
away  with  the  dust  and  so  to  mingle 
with  Man,  and  went  to  an  arch-idolater 
of  repute  who  carved  idols  out  of  rare 
stones,  and  put  his  case  before  him.  The 
arch-idolater  who  made  idols  of  his  own 
rebuked  Pombo  in  the  name  of  Man  for 
having  broken  his  idols  —  "for  hath  not 

The  Injudicious  Prayers  of  38 

Pombo  the  Idolater 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

Man  made  them?"  the  arch-idolater 
said;  and  concerning  the  idols  themselves 
he  spoke  long  and  learnedly,  explaining 
divine  etiquette,  and  how  Pombo  had 
offended,  and  how  no  idol  in  the  world 
w^ould  listen  to  Pombo's  prayer.  When 
Pombo  heard  this  he  wept  and  made 
bitter  outcry,  and  cursed  the  gods  of 
ivory  and  the  gods  of  jade,  and  the  hand 
of  Man  that  made  them,  but  most  of  all 
he  cursed  their  etiquette  that  had  un- 
done, as  he  said,  an  innocent  man;  so 
that  at  last  that  arch-idolater,  who  made 
idols  of  his  own,  stopped  in  his  work 
upon  an  idol  of  jasper  for  a  king  that 
was  weary  of  Wosh,  and  took  compassion 
on  Pombo,  and  told  him  that  though  no 
idol  in  the  world  would  listen  to  his 
prayer,  yet  only  a  little  way  over  the 
edge  of  it  a  certain  disreputable  idol  sat 
who  knew  nothing  of  etiquette,  and 
granted  prayers  that  no  respectable  god 
would  ever  consent  to  hear.  When  Pombo 
heard  this  he  took  two  handfuls  of  the 
arch-idolater's  beard  and  kissed  them 
joyfully,  and  dried  his  tears  and  became 

39  ^he  Injudicious  Prayers  of 

Pombo  the  Idolater 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

his  old  impertinent  self  again.  And  he 
that  carved  from  jasper  the  usurper  of 
Wosh  explained  how  in  the  village  of 
World's  End,  at  the  furthest  end  of  Last 
Street,  there  is  a  hole  that  you  take  to 
be  a  well,  close  by  the  garden  wall,  but 
that  if  you  lower  yourself  by  your  hands 
over  the  edge  of  the  hole,  and  feel  about 
with  your  feet  till  they  find  a  ledge,  that 
is  the  top  step  of  a  flight  of  stairs  that 
takes  you  down  over  the  edge  of  the 
World.  ''For  all  that  men  know,  those 
stairs  may  have  a  purpose  and  even  a 
bottom  step,"  said  the  arch-idolater, 
''but  discussion  about  the  lower  flights 
is  idle."  Then  the  teeth  of  Pombo  chat- 
tered, for  he  feared  the  darkness,  but 
he  that  made  idols  of  his  own  explained 
that  those  stairs  were  always  lit  by  the' 
faint  blue  gloaming  in  which  the  World 
spins.  "Then,"  he  said,  "you  will  go  by 
Lonely  House  and  under  the  bridge  that 
leads  from  the  House  to  Nowhere,  and 
whose  purpose  is  not  guessed;  thence 
past  Maharrion,  the  god  of  flowers,  and 
his  high-priest,  who  is  neither  bird  nor 

The  Injudicious  Prayers  of  40 

Pombo  the  Idolater 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

cat;  and  so  you  will  come  to  the  little 
idol  Duth,  the  disreputable  god  that  will 
grant  your  prayer."  And  he  went  on 
carving  again  at  his  idol  of  jasper  for  the 
king  who  was  weary  of  Wosh;  and  Pombo 
thanked  him  and  went  singing  away,  for 
in  his  vernacular  mind  he  thought  that 
"he  had  the  gods." 

It  is  a  long  journey  from  London  to 
World's  End,  and  Pombo  had  no  money 
left,  yet  within  five  weeks  he  was  strolling 
along  Last  Street;  but  how  he  contrived 
to  get  there  I  will  not  say,  for  it  was  not 
entirely  honest.  And  Pombo  found  the 
well  at  the  end  of  the  garden  beyond  the 
end  house  of  Last  Street,  and  many 
thoughts  ran  through  his  mind  as  he 
hung  by  his  hands  from  the  edge,  but 
chiefest  of  all  those  thoughts  was  one 
that  said  the  gods  were  laughing  at  him 
through  the  mouth  of  the  arch-idolater, 
their  prophet,  and  the  thought  beat  in 
his  head  till  it  ached  like  his  wrists  .  .  . 
and  then  he  found  the  step. 

And  Pombo  walked  downstairs. 
There,  sure  enough,  was  the  gloaming  in 

41  The  Injudicious  Pravers  of 

Pombo  the  Idolater 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

which  the  world  spins,  and  stars  shone 
far  off  in  it  faintly;  there  was  nothing 
before  him  as  he  went  downstairs  but 
that  strange  blue  waste  of  gloaming,  with 
its  multitudes  of  stars,  and  comets  plung- 
ing through  it  on  outward  journeys  and 
comets  returning  home.  And  then  he 
saw  the  lights  of  the  bridge  to  Nowhere, 
and  all  of  a  sudden  he  was  in  the  glare  of 
the  shimmering  parlour-window  of  Lonely 
House;  and  he  heard  voices  there  pro- 
nouncing words,  and  the  voices  were 
nowise  human,  and  but  for  his  bitter 
need  he  had  screamed  and  fled.  Halfway 
between  the  voices  and  Maharrion,  whom 
he  now  saw  standing  out  from  the  world, 
covered  in  rainbow  hales,  he  perceived 
the  weird  grey  beast  that  is  neither  cat 
nor  bird.  As  Pombo  hesitated,  chilly 
with  fear,  he  heard  those  voices  grow 
louder  in  Lonely  House,  and  at  that  he 
stealthily  moved  a  few  steps  lower,  and 
then  rushed  past  the  beast.  The  beast 
intently  watched  Maharrion  hurling  up 
bubbles  that  are  every  one  a  season  of 
spring  in  unknown  constellations,  calling 

The  Injudicious  Prayers  of  42 

Pombo  the  Idolater 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

the  swallows  home  to  unimagined  fields, 
watched  him  without  even  turning  to 
look  at  Pombo,  and  saw  him  drop  into 
the  Linlunlarna,  the  river  that  rises  at 
the  edge  of  the  World,  the  golden  pollen 
that  sweetens  the  tide  of  the  river  and 
is  carried  away  from  the  World  to  be  a 
joy  to  the  Stars.  And  there  before 
Pombo  was  the  little  disreputable  god 
who  cares  nothing  for  etiquette  and  will 
answer  prayers  that  are  refused  by  all 
the  respectable  idols.  And  whether  the 
view  of  him,  at  last,  excited  Pombo's 
eagerness,  or  whether  his  need  was 
greater  than  he  could  bear  that  it  drove 
him  so  swiftly  downstairs,  or  whether, 
as  is  most  likely,  he  ran  too  fast  past  the 
beast,  I  do  not  know,  and  it  does  not 
matter  to  Pombo;  but  at  any  rate  he 
could  not  stop,  as  he  had  designed,  in 
attitude  of  praj'-er  at  the  feet  of  Duth, 
but  ran  on  past  him  down  the  narrowing 
steps,  clutching  at  smooth  bare  rocks 
till  he  fell  from  the  World  as,  when  our 
hearts  miss  a  beat,  we  fall  in  dreams  and 
wake  up  with  a  dreadful  jolt;  but  there 

43  The  Injudicious  Prayers  of 

Pombo  the  Idolater 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

was  no  waking  up  for  Pombo,  who  still 
fell  on  towards  the  incurious  stars,  and 
his  fate  is  even  one  with  the  fate  of 
Slith. 


The  Injudicious  Prayers  of  44 

Pombo  the  Idolater 


The  Loot 

of 

^omhasharna 

jhings  had  grown  too  hot 
'for  Shard,  captain  of 
I  pirates,  on  all  the  seas 
'that  he  knew.  The  ports 
I  of  Spain  were  closed  to 
him;  they  knew  him  in  San  Domingo; 
men  winked  in  Syracuse  when  he  went 
by;  the  two  Kings  of  the  Sicilies  never 
smiled  within  an  hour  of  speaking  of 
him;  there  were  huge  rewards  for  his 
head  in  every  capital  city,  with  pictures 
of  it  for  identification  —  and  all  the  pic- 
tures were  unflattering.  Therefore  Captain 
Shard  decided  that  the  time  had  come 
to  tell  his  men  the  secret. 

Riding  off  Teneriffe  one  night,  he 
called  them  all  together.  He  generously 
admitted  that  there  were  things  in  the 


45 


The  Loot  of 
Bombasharna 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

past  that  might  require  explanation: 
the  crowns  that  the  Princes  of  Aragon 
had  sent  to  their  nephews  the  Kings  of 
the  two  Americas  had  certainly  never 
reached  their  Most  Sacred  Majesties. 
Where,  men  might  ask,  were  the  eyes  of 
Captain  Stobbud?  Who  had  been  burn- 
ing towns  on  the  Patagonian  seaboard? 
Why  should  such  a  ship  as  theirs  choose 
pearls  for  cargo?  Why  so  much  blood  on 
the  decks  and  so  many  guns?  And  where 
was  the  Nancy,  the  Lark,  or  the  Margaret 
Belief  Such  questions  as  these,  he  urged, 
might  be  asked  by  the  inquisitive,  and 
if  counsel  for  the  defence  should  happen 
to  be  a  fool,  and  unacquainted  with  the 
ways  of  the  sea,  they  might  become  in- 
volved in  troublesome  legal  formulae. 
And  Bloody  Bill,  as  they  rudely  called 
Mr.  Gagg,  a  member  of  the  crew,  looked 
up  at  the  sky,  and  said  that  it  was  a 
windy  night  and  looked  like  hanging. 
And  some  of  those  present  thoughtfully 
stroked  their  necks  while  Captain  Shard 
unfolded  to  them  his  plan.  He  said  the 
time   was   come   to   quit   the   Desperate 

The  Loot  of  4Q 

Bombasharna 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

Lark,  for  she  was  too  well  known  to  the 
navies  of  four  kingdoms,  and  a  fifth  was 
getting  to  know  her,  and  others  had  sus- 
picions. (More  cutters  than  even  Captain 
Shard  suspected  were  already  looking  for 
her  jolly  black  flag  with  its  neat  skuU- 
and-crossbones  in  yellow.)  There  was  a 
little  archipelago  that  he  knew  of  on 
the  wrong  side  of  the  Sargasso  Sea;  there 
were  about  thirty  islands  there,  bare, 
ordinary  islands,  but  one  of  them  floated. 
He  had  noticed  it  years  ago,  and  had 
gone  ashore  and  never  told  a  soul,  but 
had  quietly  anchored  it  with  the  anchor 
of  his  ship  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea, 
which  just  there  was  profoundly  deep, 
and  had  made  the  thing  the  secret  of  his 
life,  determining  to  marry  and  settle 
down  there  if  it  ever  became  impossible 
to  earn  his  livelihood  in  the  usual  way  at 
sea.  When  first  he  saw  it  it  was  drifting 
slowly,  with  the  wind  in  the  tops  of  the 
trees;  but  if  the  cable  had  not  rusted 
away,  it  should  be  still  where  he  left  it, 
and  they  would  make  a  rudder  and  hol- 
low out  cabins  below,  and  at  night  they 

47  The  Loot  of 

Bombasharna 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

would  hoist  sails  to  the  trunks  of  the 
trees  and  sail  wherever  they  liked. 

And  all  the  pirates  cheered,  for  they 
wanted  to  set  their  feet  on  land  again 
somewhere  where  the  hangman  would 
not  come  and  jerk  them  off  it  at  once; 
and  bold  men  though  they  were,  it  was 
a  strain  seeing  so  many  Hghts  coming 
their  way  at  night.  Even  then  .  .  .  ! 
But  it  swerved  away  again  and  was  lost 
in  the   mist. 

And  Captain  Shard  said  that  they 
would  need  to  get  provisions  first,  and 
he,  for  one,  intended  to  marry  before  he 
settled  down;  and  so  they  should  have 
one  more  fight  before  they  left  the  ship, 
and  sack  the  sea-coast  city  Bombasharna 
and  take  from  it  provisions  for  several 
years,  while  he  himself  would  marry  the 
Queen  of  the  South.  And  again  the 
pirates  cheered,  for  often  they  had  seen 
sea-coast  Bombasharna,  and  had  always 
envied  its  opulence  from  the  sea. 

So  they  set  all  sail,  and  often  altered 
their  course,  and  dodged  and  fled  from 
strange  Hghts  till  dawn  appeared,  and 

The  Loot  of  43 

Bombasharna 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

all  day  long  fled  southwards.  And  by 
evening  they  saw  the  silver  spires  of 
slender  Bombasharna,  a  city  that  was 
the  glory  of  the  coast.  And  in  the  midst 
of  it,  far  away  though  they  were,  they 
saw  the  palace  of  the  Queen  of  the 
South;  and  it  was  so  full  of  windows  all 
looking  toward  the  sea,  and  they  were 
so  full  of  Hght,  both  from  the  sunset 
that  was  fading  upon  the  water  and  from 
candles  that  maids  were  lighting  one  by 
one,  that  it  looked  far  off  like  a  pearl, 
shimmering  still  in  its  haliotis  shell,  still 
wet  from  the  sea. 

So  Captain  Shard  and  his  pirates  saw 
it,  at  evening  over  the  water,  and  thought 
of  rumours  that  said  that  Bombasharna 
was  the  loveliest  city  of  the  coasts  of 
the  world,  and  that  its  palace  was  lovelier 
even  than  Bombasharna;  but  for  the 
Queen  of  the  South  rumour  had  no  com- 
parison. Then  night  came  down  and 
hid  the  silver  spires,  and  Shard  sHpped 
on  through  the  gathering  darkness  until 
by  midnight  the  piratic  ship  lay  under 
the  seaward  battlements. 

49  The  Loot  of 

Bombasharna 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

And  at  the  hour  when  sick  men  mostly 
die,  and  sentries  on  lonely  ramparts 
stand  to  their  arms,  exactly  half-an-hour 
before  dawn,  Shard,  with  two  rowing 
boats  and  half  his  crew,  with  craftily 
muffled  oars,  landed  below  the  battle- 
ments. They  were  through  the  gateway 
of  the  palace  itself  before  the  alarm  was 
sounded,  and  as  soon  as  they  heard  the 
alarm  Shard's  gunners  at  sea  opened 
upon  the  town,  and,  before  the  sleepy 
soldiery  of  Bombasharna  knew  whether 
the  danger  was  from  the  land  or  the  sea, 
Shard  had  successfully  captured  the 
Queen  of  the  South.  They  would  have 
looted  all  day  that  silver  sea-coast  city, 
but  there  appeared  with  dawn  suspicious 
topsails  just  along  the  horizon.  There- 
fore the  captain  with  his  Queen  went 
down  to  the  shore  at  once  and  hastily 
re-embarked  and  sailed  away  with  what 
loot  they  had  hurriedly  got,  and  with 
fewer  men,  for  they  had  to  fight  a  good 
deal  to  get  back  to  the  boat.  They 
cursed  all  day  the  interference  of  those 
ominous  ships  which  steadily  grew  nearer. 

The  Loot  of  50 

Bombasharna 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

There  were  six  ships  at  first,  and  that 
night  they  sHpped  away  from  all  but 
two;  but  all  the  next  day  those  two  were 
still  in  sight,  and  each  of  them  had  more 
guns  than  the  Desperate  Lark.  All  the 
next  night  Shard  dodged  about  the  sea, 
but  the  two  ships  separated  and  one 
kept  him  in  sight,  and  the  next  morning 
it  was  alone  with  Shard  on  the  sea,  and 
his  archipelago  was  just  in  sight,  the 
secret  of  his  life. 

And  Shard  saw  he  must  fight,  and  a 
bad  fight  it  was,  and  yet  it  suited  Shard's 
purpose,  for  he  had  more  merry  men 
when  the  fight  began  than  he  needed  for 
his  island.  And  they  got  it  over  before 
any  other  ship  came  up;  and  Shard  put 
all  adverse  evidence  out  of  the  wa}- ,  and 
came  that  night  to  the  islands  near  the 
Sargasso  Sea. 

Long  before  it  was  light  the  survivors 
of  the  crew  were  peering  at  the  sea,  and 
when  dawn  came  there  was  the  island, 
no  bigger  than  two  ships,  straining  hard 
at  its  anchor,  with  the  wind  in  the  tops 
of  the  trees. 

51  The  Loot  of 

Bombasharna 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

And  then  they  landed  and  dug  cabins 
below  and  raised  the  anchor  out  of  the 
deep  sea,  and  soon  they  made  the  island 
what  they  called  shipshape.  But  the 
Desperate  Lark  they  sent  away  empty 
under  full  sail  to  sea,  where  more  nations 
than  Shard  suspected  were  watching 
for  her,  and  where  she  was  presently  cap- 
tured by  an  admiral  of  Spain,  who,  when 
he  found  none  of  that  famous  crew  on 
board  to  hang  by  the  neck  from  the  yard- 
arm,  grew  ill  through  disappointment. 

And  Shard  on  his  island  offered  the 
Queen  of  the  South  the  choicest  of  the 
old  wines  of  Provence,  and  for  adornment 
gave  her  Indian  jewels  looted  from  gal- 
leons with  treasure  for  Madrid,  and 
spread  a  table  where  she  dined  in  the 
sun,  while  in  some  cabin  below  he  bade 
the  least  coarse  of  his  mariners  sing;  yet 
always  she  was  morose  and  moody 
towards  him,  and  often  at  evening  he 
was  heard  to  say  that  he  wished  he 
knew  more  about  the  ways  of  Queens. 
So  they  lived  for  years,  the  pirates  mostly 
gambling  and  drinking  below,   Captain 

The  Loot  of  52 

Bombasharna 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

Shard  trying  to  please  the  Queen  of  the 
South,  and  she  never  wholly  forgetting 
Bombasharna.  When  they  needed  new 
provisions  they  hoisted  sails  on  the  trees, 
and  as  long  as  no  ship  came  in  sight  they 
scudded  before  the  wind,  with  the  water 
rippling  over  the  beach  of  the  island; 
but  as  soon  as  they  sighted  a  ship  the 
sails  came  down,  and  they  became  an 
ordinary  uncharted  rock. 

They  mostly  moved  by  night;  some- 
times they  hovered  off  sea-coast  towns 
as  of  old,  sometimes  they  boldly  entered 
river-mouths,  and  even  attached  them- 
selves for  a  while  to  the  mainland, 
whence  they  would  plunder  the  neigh- 
bourhood and  escape  again  to  sea.  And 
if  a  ship  was  wrecked  on  their  island  of 
a  night  they  said  it  was  all  to  the  good. 
They  grew  very  crafty  in  seamanship, 
and  cunning  in  what  they  did,  for  they 
knew  that  any  news  of  the  Desperate 
Lark's  old  crew  would  bring  hangmen 
from  the  interior  running  down  to  every 
port. 

And  no  one  is  known  to  have  found 

53  The  Loot  of 

Bombasharna 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

them  out  or  to  have  annexed  their  island; 
but  a  rumour  arose  and  passed  from  port 
to  port  and  every  place  where  sailors 
meet  together,  and  even  survives  to  this 
day,  of  a  dangerous  uncharted  rock  any- 
where between  Plymouth  and  the  Horn, 
which  would  suddenly  rise  in  the  safest 
track  of  ships,  and  upon  which  vessels 
were  supposed  to  have  been  wrecked, 
leaving,  strangely  enough,  no  evidence 
of  their  doom.  There  was  a  little  specula- 
tion about  it  at  first,  till  it  was  silenced 
by  the  chance  remark  of  a  man  old  with 
wandering:  ''It  is  one  of  the  mysteries 
that  haunt  the  sea." 

And  almost  Captain  Shard  and  the 
Queen  of  the  South  lived  happily  ever 
after,  though  still  at  evening  those  on 
watch  in  the  trees  would  see  their  captain 
sit  with  a  puzzled  air  or  hear  him  mutter- 
ing now  and  again  in  a  discontented  way: 
''I  wish  I  knew  more  about  the  ways  of 
Queens." 


The  Loot  of  5^ 

Bombasharna 


I  Wish  I  KxEAv  Moke  About  the  Ways  of  Queens' 


Miss  Cubhidge 
and    the 
T>ragon 

of 
Romance 

This  tale  is  told  in  the  balconies  of  Bclgrave  Square  and 
among  the  towers  of  Pont  Street;  men  sing  it  at  evening 
in  the  Brompton  Road. 

Httle  upon  her  eighteenth 
[birthday  thought  Miss 
Cubbidge,  of  Number  12a 
I  Prince  of  Wales'  Square, 
ithat  before  another  year 
had  gone  its  way  she  would  lose  the  sight 
of  that  unshapely  oblong  that  was  so 
long  her  home.  And,  had  you  told  her 
further  that  within  that  year  all  trace  of 
that  so-called  square,  and  of  the  day 
when  her  father  was  elected  by  a  thump- 

55  Miss  Cvbbidtje  and  the 

Dragon  of  Romance 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

ing  majority  to  share  in  the  guidance 
of  the  destinies  of  the  empire,  should 
utterly  fade  from  her  memory,  she  would 
merely  have  said  in  that  affected  voice 
of  hers,  ^'Go  to!" 

There  was  nothing  about  it  in  the 
daily  Press,  the  policy  of  her  father's 
party  had  no  provision  for  it,  there  was 
no  hint  of  it  in  conversation  at  evening 
parties  to  which  Miss  Cubbidge  went: 
there  was  nothing  to  warn  her  at  all 
that  a  loathsome  dragon  with  golden 
scales  that  rattled  as  he  went  should 
have  come  up  clean  out  of  the  prime  of 
romance  and  gone  by  night  (so  far  as 
we  know)  through  Hammersmith,  and 
come  to  Ardle  Mansions,  and  then  have 
turned  to  his  left,  which  of  course 
brought  him  to  Miss  Cubbidge 's  father's 
house. 

There  sat  Miss  Cubbidge  at  evening 
on  her  balcony  quite  alone,  waiting  for 
her  father  to  be  made  a  baronet.  She 
was  wearing  walking-boots  and  a  hat 
and  a  low-necked  evening  dress;  for  a 
painter  was  but  just  now  painting  her 

Miss  Cubbidge  and  the  56 

Dragon  of  Romance 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

portrait  and  neither  she  nor  the  painter 
saw  anything  odd  in  the  strange  combi- 
nation. She  did  not  notice  the  roar  of 
the  dragon's  golden  scales,  nor  distin- 
guish above  the  manifold  hghts  of  London 
the  small,  red  glare  of  his  eyes.  He  sud- 
denly lifted  his  head,  a  blaze  of  gold, 
over  the  balcony;  he  did  not  appear  a 
yellow  dragon  then,  for  his  ghstening 
scales  reflected  the  beauty  that  London 
puts  upon  her  only  at  evening  and  night. 
She  screamed,  but  to  no  knight,  nor 
knew  what  knight  to  call  on,  nor  guessed 
where  were  the  dragons'  overthrowers 
of  far,  rom  -ntic  days,  nor  what  mightier 
game  they  chased,  or  what  wars  they 
waged;  perchance  they  were  busy  even 
then  arming  for  Armageddon. 

Out  of  the  balcony  of  her  father's 
house  in  Prince  of  Wales'  Square,  the 
painted  dark-green  balcony  that  grew 
blacker  every  year,  the  dragon  lifted 
Miss  Cubbidge  and  spread  his  rattling 
wings,  and  London  fell  away  like  an  old 
fashion.  And  England  fell  away,  and  the 
smoke   of  its   factories,   and  the  round 

57  Miss  Cubbidge  and  the 

Dragon  of  Romance 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

material  world  that  goes  humming  round 
the  sun  vexed  and  pursued  by  time, 
until  there  appeared  the  eternal  and 
ancient  lands  of  Romance  lying  low  by 
mystical  seas. 

You  had  not  pictured  Miss  Cubbidge 
stroking  the  golden  head  of  one  of  the 
dragons  of  song  with  one  hand  idly, 
while  with  the  other  she  sometimes 
played  with  pearls  brought  up  from 
lonely  places  of  the  sea.  They  filled 
huge  haHotis  shells  with  pearls  and  laid 
them  there  beside  her,  they  brought  her 
emeralds  which  she  set  to  flash  among 
the  tresses  of  her  long  black  hair,  they 
brought  her  threaded  sapphires  for  her 
cloak:  all  this  the  princes  of  fable  did 
and  the  elves  and  the  gnomes  of  myth. 
And  partly  she  still  lived,  and  parti}'- 
she  was  one  with  long-ago  and  with  those 
sacred  tales  that  nurses  tell,  when  all 
their  children  are  good,  and  evening  has 
come,  and  the  fire  is  burning  well,  and 
the  soft  pat-pat  of  the  snow-flakes  on 
the  pane  is  like  the  furtive  tread  of 
fearful  things  in  old,  enchanted  woods. 

Miss  Cubbidge  and  thf,  53 

Dragon  of  Romanct 


The  Book  0/  Wonder 

If  at  first  she  missed  those  dainty  novel- 
ties among  which  she  was  reared,  the 
old,  sufficient  song  of  the  mystical  sea 
singing  of  faery  lore  at  first  soothed  and 
at  last  consoled  her.  Even,  she  forgot 
those  advertisements  of  pills  that  are 
so  dear  to  England;  even,  she  forgot 
poHtical  cant  and  the  things  that  one 
discusses  and  the  things  that  one  does 
not,  and  had  perforce  to  content  herself 
with  seeing  saiHng  by  huge  golden-laden 
galleons  with  treasure  for  Madrid,  and 
the  merry  skull-and-crossbones  of  the 
pirateers,  and  the  tiny  nautilus  setting 
out  to  sea,  and  ships  of  heroes  trafficking 
in  romance  or  of  princes  seeking  for 
enchanted  isles. 

It  was  not  by  chains  that  the  dragon 
kept  her  there,  but  by  one  of  the  spells 
of  old.  To  one  to  whom  the  facilities  of 
the  daily  Press  had  for  so  long  been 
accorded  spells  would  have  palled  —  you 
would  have  said  —  and  galleons  after  a 
time  and  all  things  out-of-date.  After 
a  time.  But  whether  the  centuries  passed 
her  or  whether  the  years  or  whether  no 

69  Miss  Cubbidge  and  the 

Dragon  of  Romance 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

time  at  all,  she  did  not  know.  If  any- 
thing indicated  the  passing  of  time  it 
was  the  rhythm  of  elfin  horns  blowing 
upon  the  heights.  If  the  centuries  went 
by  her  the  spell  that  bound  her  gave  her 
also  perennial  youth,  and  kept  alight 
for  ever  the  lantern  by  her  side,  and  saved 
from  decay  the  marble  palace  facing  the 
mystical  sea.  And  if  no  time  went  by 
her  there  at  all,  her  single  moment  on 
those  marvellous  coasts  was  turned  as 
it  were  to  a  crystal  reflecting  a  thousand 
scenes.  If  it  was  all  a  dream,  it  was  a 
dream  that  knew  no  morning  and  no 
fading  away.  The  tide  roamed  on  and 
whispered  of  mystery  and  of  myth,  while 
near  that  captive  lady,  asleep  in  his 
marble  tank  the  golden  dragon  dreamed: 
and  a  little  way  out  from  the  coast 
all  that  the  dragon  dreamed  showed 
faintly  in  the  mist  that  lay  over  the 
sea.  He  never  dreamed  of  any  rescuing 
knight.  So  long  as  he  dreamed,  it  was 
twilight;  but  when  he  came  up  nimbly 
out  of  his  tank  night  fell  and  starlight 
glistened  on  the  dripping,  golden  scales. 

Miss  Cubbidge  and  the  gO 

Dragon  of  Romance 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

There  he  and  his  captive  either  de- 
feated Time  or  never  encountered  him 
at  all;  while,  in  the  world  we  know, 
raged  Roncesvalles  or  battles  yet  to  be 
—  I  know  not  to  what  part  of  the  shore 
of  Romance  he  bore  her.  Perhaps  she 
became  one  of  those  princesses  of  whom 
fable  loves  to  tell,  but  let  it  suffice  that 
there  she  hved  by  the  sea:  and  kings 
ruled,  and  Demons  ruled,  and  kings 
came  again,  and  many  cities  returned 
to  their  native  dust,  and  still  she  abided 
there,  and  still  her  marble  palace  passed 
not  away  nor  the  power  that  there  was 
in  the  dragon's  spell. 

And  only  once  did  there  ever  come  to 
her  a  message  from  the  world  that  of 
old  she  knew,  it  came  in  a  pearly  ship 
across  the  mystical  sea,  it  was  from  an 
old  school-friend  that  she  had  had  in 
Putney,  merely  a  note,  no  more,  in  a 
little,  neat,  round  hand:  it  said,  ''It  is 
not  Proper  for  you  to  be  there  alone." 


81  Miss  Cubbidge  and  the 

Dragon  of  Romance 


The  Quest 

of 
the  Queen's  Tears 

jylvia,  Queen  of  the  Woods, 
in  her  woodland  palace, 
I  held  court,  and  made  a 
'mockery  of  her  suitors. 
I  She  would  sing  to  them, 
she  said,  she  would  give  them  banquets, 
she  would  tell  them  tales  of  legendary 
days,  her  jugglers  should  caper  before 
them,  her  armies  salute  them,  her  fools 
crack  jests  with  them  and  make  whimsi- 
cal quips,  only  she  could  not  love  them. 
This  was  not  the  way,  they  said,  to 
treat  princes  in  their  splendour  and 
mysterious  troubadours  conceahng  kingly 
names;  it  was  not  in  accordance  with 
fable;  myth  had  no  precedent  for  it. 
She  should  have  thrown  her  glove,  they 


The  Quesi  of  the 
Queen's  Tears 


62 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

said,  into  some  lion's  den,  she  should 
have  asked  for  a  score  of  venomous  heads 
of  the  serpents  of  Licantara,  or  demanded 
the  death  of  any  notable  dragon,  or  sent 
them  all  upon  some  deadly  quest,  but 

that  she  could  not  love  them !    It 

was  unheard  of  —  it  had  no  parallel  in 
the  annals  of  romance. 

And  then  she  said  that  if  they  must 
needs  have  a  quest  she  would  offer  her 
hand  to  him  who  first  should  move  her  to 
tears :  and  the  quest  should  be  called,  for 
reference  in  histories  or  song,  the  Quest  of 
the  Queen's  Tears,  and  he  that  achieved 
them  she  would  wed,  be  he  only  a  petty 
duke  of  lands  unknown  to  romance. 

And  many  were  moved  to  anger,  for 
they  hoped  for  some  bloody  quest;  but 
the  old  lords  chamberlain  said,  as  they 
muttered  among  themselves  in  a  far, 
dark  end  of  the  chamber,  that  the  quest 
was  hard  and  wise,  for  that  if  she  could 
ever  weep  she  might  also  love.  They  had 
known  her  all  her  childhood;  she  had 
never  sighed.  Many  men  had  she  seen, 
suitors    and    courtiers,    and    had    never 

63  The  Qvest  of  the 

Queen's  Tears 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

turned  her  head  after  one  went  by.  Her 
beauty  was  as  still  sunsets  of  bitter  even- 
ings when  all  the  world  is  frore,  a  wonder 
and  a  chill.  She  was  as  a  sun-stricken 
mountain  upUfted  alone,  all  beautiful 
with  ice,  a  desolate  and  lonelj^  radiance 
late  at  evening  far  up  beyond  the  com- 
fortable world,  not  quite  to  be  compan- 
ioned by  the  stars,  the  doom  of  the 
mountaineer. 

If  she  could  weep,  they  said,  she  could 
love,  they  said. 

And  she  smiled  pleasantly  on  those 
ardent  princes,  and  troubadours  conceal- 
ing kingly  names. 

Then  one  by  one  they  told,  each  suitor 
prince  the  story  of  his  love,  with  out- 
stretched hands  and  kneeling  on  the 
knee;  and  very  sorry  and  pitiful  were 
the  tales,  so  that  often  up  in  the  galleries 
some  maid  of  the  palace  wept.  And  very 
graciously  she  nodded  her  head  like  a 
hstless  magnolia  in  the  deeps  of  the 
night  moving  idly  to  all  the  breezes  its 
glorious  bloom. 

And  when  the  princes  had  told  their 

The  Quest  of  the  64 

Queen's  Tears 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

desperate  loves  and  had  departed  away 
with  no  other  spoil  than  of  their  own 
tears  only,  even  then  there  came  the 
unknown  troubadours  and  told  their 
tales  in  song,  conceahng  their  gracious 
names. 

And  one  there  was,  Ackronnion, 
clothed  with  rags,  on  which  was  the  dust 
of  roads,  and  underneath  the  rags  was 
war-scarred  armour  whereon  were  the 
dints  of  blows;  and  when  he  stroked  his 
harp  and  sang  his  song,  in  gallery  above 
gallery  maidens  wept,  and  even  the  old 
lords  chamberlain  whimpered  among 
themselves  and  thereafter  laughed 
through  their  tears  and  said:  ''It  is 
easy  to  make  old  people  weep  and  to 
bring  idle  tears  from  lazy  girls;  but  he 
will  not  set  a-weeping  the  Queen  of  the 
Woods." 

And  graciously  she  nodded,  and  he 
was  the  last.  And  disconsolate  went 
away  those  dukes  and  princes,  and  trou- 
badours in  disguise.  Yet  Ackronnion 
pondered  as  he  went  away. 

King  was  he  of  Afarmah,  Lool  and  Haf, 

65  The  Quest  of  the 

Queen's  Tears 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

over-lord  of  Zeroora  and  hilly  Chang, 
and  duke  of  the  dukedoms  of  Molong 
and  Mlash,  none  of  them  unfamiliar 
with  romance  or  unknown  or  overlooked 
in  the  making  of  myth.  He  pondered  as 
he  went  in  his  thin  disguise. 

Now  by  those  that  do  not  remember 
their  childhood,  having  other  things  to 
do,  be  it  understood  that  underneath 
fairyland,  which  is,  as  all  men  know,  at 
the  edge  of  the  world,  there  dwelleth  the 
Gladsome  Beast.   A  synon^^m  he  for  joy. 

It  is  known  how  the  lark  in  its  zenith, 
children  at  play  out-of-doors,  good 
witches  and  jolly  old  parents  have  all 
been  compared  — ^  and  how  aptly !  —  with 
this  very  same  Gladsome  Beast.  Onl}^ 
one  ''crab"  he  has  (if  I  may  use  slang 
for  a  moment  to  make  myself  perfectly' 
clear),  only  one  drawback,  and  that  is 
that  in  the  gladness  of  his  heart  he  spoils 
the  cabbages  of  the  Old  Man  Who  Looks 
After  Fairyland,  —  and  of  course  he  eats 
men. 

It  must  further  be  understood  that 
whoever  may   obtain   the   tears   of   the 

The  Quest  of  the  66 

Queen's  Tears 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

Gladsome  Beast  in  a  bowl,  and  become 
drunken  upon  them,  may  move  all  per- 
sons to  shed  tears  of  joy  so  long  as  he 
remains  inspired  by  the  potion  to  sing  or 
to  make  music. 

Now  Ackronnion  pondered  in  this 
wise :  that  if  he  could  obtain  the  tears  of 
the  Gladsome  Beast  by  means  of  his  art, 
withholding  him  from  violence  by  the 
spell  of  music,  and  if  a  friend  should 
slay  the  Gladsome  Beast  before  his 
weeping  ceased  —  for  an  end  must  come 
to  weeping  even  with  men  —  that  so  he 
might  get  safe  away  with  the  tears,  and 
drink  them  before  the  Queen  of  the 
Woods  and  move  her  to  tears  of  joy. 
He  sought  out  therefore  a  humble 
knightly  man  who  cared  not  for  the 
beauty  of  Sylvia,  Queen  of  the  Woods, 
but  had  found  a  woodland  maiden  of  his 
own  once  long  ago  in  summer.  And  the 
man's  name  was  Arrath,  a  subject  of 
Ackronnion,  a  knight-at-arms  of  the 
spear-guard:  and  together  they  set  out 
through  the  fields  of  fable  until  they 
came  to  Fairyland,  a  kingdom  sunning 

67  The  Quest  cf  the 

Queen's  Tears 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

itself  (as  all  men  know)  for  leagues  along 
the  edges  of  the  world.  And  by  a  strange 
old  pathway  they  came  to  the  land  they 
sought,  through  a  wind  blowing  up  the 
pathway  sheer  from  space  with  a  kind  of 
metaUic  taste  from  the  roving  stars. 
Even  so  they  came  to  the  windy  house  of 
thatch  where  dwells  the  Old  Man  Who 
Looks  After  Fairyland  sitting  by  parlour 
windows  that  look  away  from  the  world. 
He  made  them  welcome  in  his  star-ward 
parlour,  telling  them  tales  of  Space,  and 
when  they  named  to  him  their  perilous 
quest  he  said  it  would  be  a  charity  to  kill 
the  Gladsome  Beast;  for  he  was  clearly 
one  of  those  that  liked  not  its  happy 
ways.  And  then  he  took  them  out  through 
his  back  door,  for  the  front  door  had  no 
pathway  nor  even  a  step  —  from  it  the 
old  man  used  to  empty  his  slops  sheer  on 
to  the  Southern  Cross  —  and  so  they 
came  to  the  garden  wherein  his  cabbages 
were,  and  those  flowers  that  only  blow  in 
Fairyland,  turning  their  faces  always 
towards  the  comet,  and  he  pointed  them 
out  the  way  to  the  place  he  called  Under- 

The  Quest  of  the  68 

Queen's  Tears 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

neath,  where  the  Gladsome  Beast  had  his 
lair.  Then  they  manoeuvred.  Ackronnion 
was  to  go  by  the  way  of  the  steps  with 
his  harp  and  an  agate  bowl,  while  Arrath 
went  round  by  a  crag  on  the  other  side. 
Then  the  Old  Man  Who  Looks  After 
Fairyland  went  back  to  his  windy  house, 
muttering  angrily  as  he  passed  his  cab- 
bages, for  he  did  not  love  the  ways  of 
the  Gladsome  Beast;  and  the  two  friends 
parted  on  their  separate  ways. 

Nothing  perceived  them  but  that  omi- 
nous crow  glutted  overlong  already  upon 
the  flesh  of  man. 

The  wind  blew  bleak  from  the  stars. 

At  first  there  was  dangerous  climbing, 
and  then  Ackronnion  gained  the  smooth 
broad  steps  that  led  from  the  edge  to  the 
lair,  and  at  that  moment  heard  at  the 
top  of  the  steps  the  continuous  chuckles 
of  the  Gladsome  Beast. 

He  feared  then  that  its  mirth  might 
be  insuperable,  not  to  be  saddened  by 
the  most  grievous  song;  nevertheless  he 
did  not  turn  back  then,  but  softly 
climbed  the  stairs  and,  placing  the  agate 

69  The  Quest  of  the 

Queen's  Tears 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

bowl  upon  a  step,  struck  up  the  chaunt 
called  Dolorous.  It  told  of  desolate, 
regretted  things  befallen  happy  cities 
long  since  in  the  prime  of  the  world.  It 
told  of  how  the  gods  and  beasts  and  men 
had  long  ago  loved  beautiful  companions, 
and  long  ago  in  vain.  It  told  of  the 
golden  host  of  happy  hopes,  but  not  of 
their  achieving.  It  told  how  Love  scorned 
Death,  but  told  of  Death's  laughter. 
The  contented  chuckles  of  the  Gladsome 
Beast  suddenly  ceased  in  his  lair.  He 
rose  and  shook  himself.  He  was  stiU 
unhappy.  Ackronnion  still  sang  on  the 
chaunt  called  Dolorous.  The  Gladsome 
Beast  came  mournfully  up  to  him.  Ack- 
ronnion ceased  not  for  the  sake  of  his 
panic,  but  still  sang  on.  He  sang  of  the 
malignity  of  time.  Two  tears  welled 
large  in  the  eyes  of  the  Gladsome  Beast. 
Ackronnion  moved  the  agate  bowl  to  a 
suitable  spot  with  his  foot.  He  sang  of 
autumn  and  of  passing  away.  Then  the 
beast  wept  as  the  frore  hills  weep  in  the 
thaw,  and  the  tears  splashed  big  into 
the  agate  bowl.    Ackronnion  desperately 

The  Quest  of  the  70 

Queen's  Tears 


Hio  Felt  as  a  Moksei, 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

chaunted  on;  he  told  of  the  glad  un- 
noticed things  men  see  and  do  not  see 
again,  of  sunlight  beheld  unheeded  on 
faces  now  withered  away.  The  bowl  was 
full.  Ackronnion  was  desperate:  the 
Beast  was  so  close.  Once  he  thought 
that  its  mouth  was  watering!  —  but  it 
was  only  the  tears  that  had  run  on  the 
Hps  of  the  Beast.  He  felt  as  a  morsel! 
The  Beast  was  ceasing  to  weep!  He  sang 
of  worlds  that  had  disappointed  the 
gods.  And  all  of  a  sudden,  crash!  and 
the  staunch  spear  of  Arrath  went  home 
behind  the  shoulder,  and  the  tears  and 
the  joyful  ways  of  the  Gladsome  Beast 
were  ended  and  over  for  ever. 

And  carefully  they  carried  the  bowl  of 
tears  away,  leaving  the  body  of  the  Glad- 
some Beast  as  a  change  of  diet  for  the 
ominous  crow;  and  going  by  the  windy 
house  of  thatch  they  said  farewell  to  the 
Old  Man  Who  Looks  After  Fairyland, 
who  when  he  heard  of  the  deed  rubbed 
his  large  hands  together  and  mumbled 
again  and  again,  ^' And  a  very  good  thing, 
too.   My  cabbages!   My  cabbages!" 

71  The  Quest  of  the 

Queen's  Tears 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

And  not  long  after  Ackronnion  sang 
again  in  the  sylvan  palace  of  the  Queen 
of  the  Woods,  having  first  drunk  all  the 
tears  in  his  agate  bowl.  And  it  was  a 
gala  night,  and  all  the  court  were  there 
and  ambassadors  from  the  lands  of 
legend  and  myth,  and  even  some  from 
Terra  Cognita. 

And  Ackronnion  sang  as  he  never  sang 
before,  and  will  not  sing  again.  O,  but 
dolorous,  dolorous,  are  all  the  ways  of 
man,  few  and  fierce  are  his  days,  and  the 
end  trouble,  and  vain,  vain  his  endeavour : 
and  woman  —  who  shall  tell  of  it?  — 
her  doom  is  written  with  man's  by  list- 
less, careless  gods  with  their  faces  to 
other  spheres. 

Somewhat  thus  he  began,  and  then 
inspiration  seized  him,  and  all  the  trouble 
in  the  beauty  of  his  song  may  not  be 
set  down  by  me:  there  was  much  glad- 
ness in  it,  and  all  mingled  with  grief:  it 
was  like  the  way  of  man:  it  was  like  our 
destiny. 

Sobs  arose  at  his  song,  sighs  came  back 
along  echoes:  seneschals,  soldiers,  sobbed, 

The  Quest  of  the  72 

Queen's  Tears 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

and  a  clear  cry  made  the  maidens;  like 
rain  the  tears  came  down  from  gallery 
to  gallery. 

All  round  the  Queen  of  the  Woods  was 
a  storm  of  sobbing  and  sorrow. 

But  no,  she  would  not  weep, 


73  The  Quest  of  the 

Queen's  Tears 


The  Hoard  of  the 
Gibbelins 


Jhe  Gibbelins  eat,  as  is  well 
known,  nothing  less  good 
than  man.  Their  evil 
tower  is  joined  to  Terra 
Cognita,  to  the  lands  we 
know,  by  a  bridge.  Their  hoard  is  be- 
yond reason;  avarice  has  no  use  for  it; 
they  have  a  separate  cellar  for  emeralds 
and  a  separate  cellar  for  sapphires;  they 
have  filled  a  hole  with  gold  and  dig  it  up 
when  they  need  it.  And  the  only  use 
that  is  known  for  their  ridiculous  wealth 
is  to  attract  to  their  larder  a  continual 
supply  of  food.  In  times  of  famine  they 
have  even  been  known  to  scatter  rubies 
abroad,  a  Httle  trail  of  them  to  some  city 
of  Man,  and  sure  enough  their  larders 
would  soon  be  full  again. 

Their  tower  stands  on  the  other  side  of 


The  Hoard  of  the 
Gibbelins 


74 


Theke  the  Gibbelixs  Lived  and  Discreditably  Fed 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

that  river  known  to  Homer — o  p6o<i  dxeavoib^ 
as  he  called  it  —  which  surrounds  the 
world.  And  where  the  river  is  narrow  and 
fordable  the  tower  was  built  by  the 
Gibbelins'  gluttonous  sires,  for  they  liked 
to  see  burglars  rowing  easily  to  their 
steps.  Some  nourishment  that  common 
soil  has  not  the  huge  trees  drained  there 
with  their  colossal  roots  from  both  banks 
of  the  river. 

There  the  Gibbelins  lived  and  dis- 
creditably fed. 

Alderic,  Knight  of  the  Order  of  the  City 
and  the  Assault,  hereditary  Guardian  of 
the  King's  Peace  of  Mind,  a  man  not 
unremembered  among  the  makers  of 
myth,  pondered  so  long  upon  the  Gib- 
belins' hoard  that  by  now  he  deemed  it 
his.  Alas  that  I  should  say  of  so  perilous 
a  venture,  undertaken  at  dead  of  night 
by  a  valorous  man,  that  its  motive  was 
sheer  avarice !  Yet  upon  avarice  only  the 
Gibbelins  relied  to  keep  their  larders  full, 
and  once  in  every  hundred  years  sent 
spies  into  the  cities  of  men  to  see  how 
avarice  did,  and  always  the  spies  returned 

75  The  Hoard  of  the 

Gibbelins 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

again  to  the  tower  saying  that  all  was 
well. 

It  may  be  thought  that,  as  the  years 
went  on  and  men  came  by  fearful  ends 
on  that  tower's  wall,  fewer  and  fewer 
would  come  to  the  Gibbelins'  table:  but 
the  Gibbelins  found  otherwise. 

Not  in  the  folly  and  frivolity  of  his 
youth  did  Alderic  come  to  the  tower, 
but  he  studied  carefully  for  several  years 
the  manner  in  which  burglars  met  their 
doom  when  they  went  in  search  of  the 
treasure  that  he  considered  his.  In  every 
case  they  had  entered  by  the  door. 

He  consulted  those  who  gave  advice 
on  this  quest;  he  noted  every  detail  and 
cheerfully  paid  their  fees,  and  deter- 
mined to  do  nothing  that  they  advised, 
for  what  were  their  clients  now?  No  more 
than  examples  of  the  savoury  art,  mere 
half -forgotten  memories  of  a  meal;  and 
many,  perhaps,  no  longer  even  that. 

These  were  the  requisites  for  the  quest 
that  these  men  used  to  advise:  a  horse, 
a  boat,  mail  armour,  and  at  least  three 
men-at-arms.     Some    said,    ^'Blow    the 

The  Hoard  of  the  JQ 

Gibbelins 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

horn  at  the  tower  door";  others  said, 
''Do  not  touch  it." 

Alderic  thus  decided:  he  would  take 
no  horse  down  to  the  river's  edge,  he 
would  not  row  along  it  in  a  boat,  and  he 
would  go  alone  and  by  way  of  the 
Forest  Unpassable. 

How  pass,  you  may  say,  by  the  un- 
passable? This  was  his  plan:  there  was 
a  dragon  he  knew  of  who  if  peasants^ 
prayers  are  heeded  deserved  to  die,  not 
alone  because  of  the  number  of  maidens 
he  cruelly  slew,  but  because  he  was  bad 
for  the  crops;  he  ravaged  the  very  land 
and  was  the  bane  of  a  dukedom. 

Now  Alderic  determined  to  go  up 
against  him.  So  he  took  horse  and  spear 
and  pricked  till  he  met  the  dragon,  and 
the  dragon  came  out  against  him  breath- 
ing bitter  smoke.  And  to  him  Alderic 
shouted,  ''Hath  foul  dragon  ever  slain 
true  knight?"  And  well  the  dragon  knew 
that  this  had  never  been,  and  he  hung 
his  head  and  was  silent,  for  he  was 
glutted  with  blood.  "Then,"  said  the 
knight,    "if    thou    would'st    ever    taste 

77  The  Hoard  of  the 

Qibbelins 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

maiden's  blood  again  thou  shalt  be  my 
trusty  steed,  and  if  not,  by  this  spear 
there  shall  befall  thee  all  that  the  trouba- 
dours tell  of  the  dooms  of  thy  breed." 

And  the  dragon  did  not  open  his  raven- 
ing mouth,  nor  rush  upon  the  knight, 
breathing  out  fire;  for  well  he  knew  the 
fate  of  those  that  did  these  things,  but  he 
consented  to  the  terms  imposed,  and  swore 
to  the  knight  to  become  his  trusty  steed. 

It  was  on  a  saddle  upon  this  dragon's 
back  that  Alderic  afterwards  sailed  above 
the  unpafisable  forest,  even  above  the 
tops  of  those  measureless  trees,  children 
of  wonder.  But  first  he  pondered  that 
subtle  plan  of  his  which  was  more  pro- 
found than  merely  to  avoid  all  that  had 
been  done  before;  and  he  commanded  a 
blacksmith,  and  the  blacksmith  made 
him  a  pickaxe. 

Now  there  was  great  rejoicing  at  the 
rumour  of  Alderic's  quest,  for  all  folk 
knew  that  he  was  a  cautious  man,  and 
they  deemed  that  he  would  succeed  and 
enrich  the  world,  and  they  rubbed  their 
hands  in  the   cities   at  the  thought  of 

The  Hoard  of  the  78 

Cibbelins 


The  Book  o/  Wonder 

largesse;  and  there  was  joy  among  all  men 
in  Alderic's  country,  except  perchance 
among  the  lenders  of  money,  who  feared 
they  would  soon  be  paid.  And  there  was 
rejoicing  also  because  men  hoped  that 
when  the  Gibbelins  were  robbed  of  their 
hoard,  they  would  shatter  their  high- 
built  bridge  and  break  the  golden  chains 
that  bound  them  to  the  world,  and  drift 
back,  they  and  their  tower,  to  the  moon, 
from  which  they  had  come  and  to  which 
they  rightly  belonged.  There  was  little 
love  for  the  Gibbelins,  though  all  men 
envied  their  hoard. 

So  they  all  cheered,  that  day  when  he 
mounted  his  dragon,  as  though  he  was 
already  a  conqueror,  and  what  pleased 
them  more  than  the  good  that  they 
hoped  he  would  do  to  the  world  was  that 
he  scattered  gold  as  he  rode  away;  for 
he  would  not  need  it,  he  said,  if  he  found 
the  Gibbelins'  hoard,  and  he  would  not 
need  it  more  if  he  smoked  on  the  Gibbe- 
Uns'  table. 

When  they  heard  that  he  had  rejected 
the  advice  of  those  that  gave  it,  some  said 

79  The  Hoard  of  the 

Gibbelins 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

that  the  knight  was  mad,  and  others 
said  he  was  greater  than  those  that  gave 
the  advice,  but  none  appreciated  the 
worth  of  his  plan. 

He  reasoned  thus:  for  centuries  men 
had  been  well  advised  and  had  gone  by 
the  cleverest  way,  while  the  Gibbelins 
came  to  expect  them  to  come  by  boat  and 
to  look  for  them  at  the  door  whenever 
their  larder  was  empty,  even  as  a  man 
looketh  for  a  snipe  in  the  marsh;  but  how, 
said  Alderic,  if  a  snipe  should  sit  in  the 
top  of  a  tree,  and  would  men  find  him 
there?  Assuredly  never!  So  Alderic  de- 
cided to  swim  the  river  and  not  to  go  by 
the  door,  but  to  pick  his  way  into  the 
tower  through  the  stone.  Moreover,  it 
was  in  his  mind  to  work  below  the  level 
of  the  ocean,  the  river  (as  Homer  knew) 
that  girdles  the  world,  so  that  as  soon 
as  he  made  a  hole  in  the  wall  the  water 
should  pour  in,  confounding  the  Gibbe- 
lins, and  flooding  the  cellars  rumoured 
to  be  twenty  feet  in  depth,  and  therein 
he  would  dive  for  emeralds  as  a  diver 
dives  for  pearls. 

The  Hoard  of  the  80 

Gibbelins 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

And  on  the  day  that  I  tell  of  he 
galloped  away  from  his  home  scattering 
largesse  of  gold,  as  I  have  said,  and  passed 
through  many  kingdoms,  the  dragon 
snapping  at  maidens  as  he  went,  but 
being  unable  to  eat  them  because  of  the 
bit  in  his  mouth,  and  earning  no  gentler 
reward  than  a  spurthrust  where  he  was 
softest.  And  so  they  came  to  the  swart 
arboreal  precipice  of  the  unpassable  for- 
est. The  dragon  rose  at  it  with  a  rattle 
of  wings.  Many  a  farmer  near  the  edge 
of  the  world  saw  him  up  there  where 
yet  the  twilight  Ungered,  a  faint,  black, 
wavering  line;  and  mistaking  him  for  a 
row  of  geese  going  inland  from  the  ocean, 
went  into  their  houses  cheerily  rubbing 
their  hands  and  saying  that  winter  was 
coming,  and  that  we  should  soon  have 
snow.  Soon  even  there  the  twiHght 
faded  away,  and  when  they  descended 
at  the  edge  of  the  world  it  was  night  and 
the  moon  was  shining.  Ocean,  the  an- 
cient river,  narrow  and  shallow  there, 
flowed  by  and  made  no  murmur.  Whether 
the  Gibbelins  banqueted  or  whether  they 

81  The  Hoard  of  the 

Gibbelins 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

watched  by  the  door,  they  also  made  no 
murmur.  And  Alderic  dismounted  and 
took  his  armour  off,  and  saying  one 
prayer  to  his  lady,  swam  with  his  pick- 
axe. He  did  not  part  from  his  sword, 
for  fear  that  he  met  with  a  Gibbehn. 
Landed  the  other  side,  he  began  to  work 
at  once,  and  all  went  well  with  him. 
Nothing  put  out  its  head  from  any 
window,  and  all  were  lighted  so  that 
nothing  within  could  see  him  in  the  dark. 
The  blows  of  his  pickaxe  were  dulled  in 
the  deep  walls.  All  night  he  worked,  no 
sound  came  to  molest  him,  and  at  dawn 
the  last  rock  swerved  and  tumbled  in- 
wards, and  the  river  poured  in  after. 
Then  Alderic  took  a  stone,  and  went  to 
the  bottom  step,  and  hurled  the  stone 
at  the  door;  he  heard  the  echoes  roll 
into  the  tower,  then  he  ran  back  and 
dived  through  the  hole  in  the  wall. 

He  was  in  the  emerald-cellar.  There 
was  no  Ught  in  the  lofty  vault  above 
him,  but,  diving  through  twenty  feet  of 
water,  he  felt  the  floor  all  rough  with 
emeralds,  and  open  coffers  full  of  them. 

The  Hoard  of  the  82 

Gibbelins 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

By  a  faint  ray  of  the  moon  he  saw  that 
the  water  was  green  with  them,  and, 
easily  fiUing  a  satchel,  he  rose  again  to 
the  surface;  and  there  were  the  Gibbe- 
lins  waist-deep  in  the  water,  with  torches 
in  their  hands!  And,  without  saying  a 
word,  or  even  smiling,  they  neatly  hanged 
him  on  the  outer  wall  —  and  the  tale 
is  one  of  those  that  have  not  a  happy 
ending. 


88  The  Hoard  of  the 

Gibbelins 


How  Nuth  would 
have  T^ractised  his 
Art  upon  the  Gnoles 

jespite  the  advertisements 
of  rival  firms,  it  is  prob- 
able that  every  tradesman 
:  knows  that  nobody  in  busi- 
ness at  the  present  time 
has  a  position  equal  to  that  of  Mr. 
Nuth.  To  those  outside  the  magic  circle 
of  business,  his  name  is  scarcely  known; 
he  does  not  need  to  advertise,  he  is  con- 
sunamate.  He  is  superior  even  to  modern 
competition,  and,  whatever  claims  they 
boast,  his  rivals  know  it.  His  terms  are 
moderate,  so  much  cash  down  when  the 
goods  are  delivered,  so  much  in  black- 
mail afterwards.  He  consults  your  con- 
venience. His  skill  may  be  counted  upon; 
I  have  seen  a  shadow  on  a  windy  night 

How  Nuth  would  have  Prac-        §4 
tised  his  Art  upon  the  Gnoles 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

move  more  noisily  than  Nuth,  for  Nuth 
is  a  burglar  by  trade.  Men  have  been 
known  to  stay  in  country  houses  and  to 
send  a  dealer  afterwards  to  bargain  for 
a  piece  of  tapestry  that  they  saw  there  — 
some  article  of  furniture,  some  picture. 
This  is  bad  taste:  but  those  whose  cul- 
ture is  more  elegant  invariably  send 
Nuth  a  night  or  two  after  their  visit. 
He  has  a  way  with  tapestry,  you  would 
scarcely  notice  that  the  edges  had  been 
cut.  And  often  when  I  see  some  huge, 
new  house  full  of  old  furniture  and  por- 
traits from  other  ages,  I  say  to  myself, 
'^  These  mouldering  chairs,  these  full- 
length  ancestors  and  carved  mahogany 
are  the  produce  of  the  incomparable 
Nuth." 

It  may  be  urged  against  my  use  of  the 
word  incomparable  that  in  the  burglary 
business  the  name  of  Slith  stands  para- 
mount and  alone;  and  of  this  I  am  not 
ignorant;  but  Slith  is  a  classic,  and  lived 
long  ago,  and  knew  nothing  at  all  of 
modern  competition;  besides  which  the 
surprising  nature  of  his  doom  has  possibly 

85        How  Nuth  would  have  Prac- 
tised his  Art  upon  the  Gnoles 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

cast  a  glamour  upon  Slith  that  exagger- 
ates in  our  eyes  his  undoubted  merits. 

It  must  not  be  thought  that  I  am 
any  friend  of  Nuth's,  on  the  contrary  such 
politics  as  I  have  are  on  the  side  of 
Property;  and  he  needs  no  words  from 
me,  for  his  position  is  almost  unique  in 
trade,  being  among  the  very  few  that 
do  not  need  to  advertise. 

At  the  time  that  my  story  begins  Nuth 
lived  in  a  roomy  house  in  Belgrave 
Square:  in  his  inimitable  way  he  had 
made  friends  with  the  caretaker.  The 
place  suited  Nuth,  and,  whenever  any- 
one came  to  inspect  it  before  purchase, 
the  caretaker  used  to  praise  the  house  in 
the  words  that  Nuth  had  suggested. 
''If  it  wasn't  for  the  drains,"  she  would 
say,  "it's  the  finest  house  in  London," 
and  when  they  pounced  on  this  remark 
and  asked  questions  about  the  drains, 
she  would  answer  them  that  the  drains 
also  were  good,  but  not  so  good  as  the 
house.  They  did  not  see  Nuth  when 
they  went  over  the  rooms,  but  Nuth 
was  there. 

How  Nuth  would  have  Prac-       gQ 
Used  his  Art  upon  the  Gnoles 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

Here  in  a  neat  black  dress  on  one 
spring  morning  came  an  old  woman 
whose  bonnet  was  lined  with  red,  asking 
for  Mr.  Nuth;  and  with  her  came  her 
large  and  awkward  son.  Mrs.  Eggins, 
the  caretaker,  glanced  up  the  street, 
and  then  she  let  them  in,  and  left  them 
to  wait  in  the  drawing-room  amongst 
furniture  all  mysterious  with  sheets.  For 
a  long  while  they  waited,  and  then  there 
was  a  smell  of  pipe-tobacco,  and  there 
was  Nuth  standing  quite  close  to  them. 

"Lord,"  said  the  old  woman  whose 
bonnet  was  hned  with  red,  ''you  did 
make  me  start."  And  then  she  saw 
by  his  eyes  that  that  was  not  the  way 
to  speak  to  Mr.  Nuth. 

And  at  last  Nuth  spoke,  and  very 
nervously  the  old  woman  explained  that 
her  son  was  a  likely  lad,  and  had  been 
in  business  already  but  wanted  to  better 
himself,  and  she  wanted  Mr.  Nuth  to 
teach  him  a  livelihood. 

First  of  all  Nuth  wanted  to  see  a 
business  reference,  and  when  he  was 
shown  one  from  a  jeweller  with  whom 

87        How  Nuth  would  have  Prac- 
tised his  Art  upon  the  Gnoles 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

he  happened  to  be  hand-in-glove  the  up- 
shot of  it  was  that  he  agreed  to  take 
young  Tonker  (for  this  was  the  surname 
of  the  Hkely  lad)  and  to  make  him  his 
apprentice.  And  the  old  woman  whose 
bonnet  was  lined  with  red  went  back  to 
her  Httle  cottage  in  the  country,  and 
every  evening  said  to  her  old  man, 
"Tonker,  we  must  fasten  the  shutters 
of  a  night-time,  for  Tommy's  a  burglar 
now." 

The  details  of  the  likely  lad's  ap- 
prenticeship I  do  not  propose  to  give; 
for  those  that  are  in  the  business  know 
those  details  already,  and  those  that 
are  in  other  businesses  care  only  for  their 
own,  while  men  of  leisure  who  have  no 
trade  at  all  would  fail  to  appreciate  the 
gradual  degrees  by  which  Tommy  Tonker 
came  first  to  cross  bare  boards,  covered 
with  Uttle  obstacles  in  the  dark,  without 
making  any  sound,  and  then  to  go  si- 
lently up  creaky  stairs,  and  then  to  open 
doors,  and  lastly  to  climb. 

Let  it  suffice  that  the  business  pros- 
pered greatly,  while  glowing  reports  of 

How  Nuth  would  have  Prac-       gg 
fised  his  Art  upon  the  Gnoles 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

Tommy  Tonker's  progress  were  sent 
from  time  to  time  to  the  old  woman 
whose  bonnet  was  lined  with  red  in  the 
laborious  handwriting  of  Nuth.  Nuth 
had  given  up  lessons  in  writing  very 
early,  for  he  seemed  to  have  some  preju- 
dice against  forgery,  and  therefore  con- 
sidered writing  a  waste  of  time.  And 
then  there  came  the  transaction  with 
Lord  Castlenorman  at  his  Surrey  resi- 
dence. Nuth  selected  a  Saturday  night, 
for  it  chanced  that  Saturday  was  ob- 
served as  Sabbath  in  the  family  of  Lord 
Castlenorman,  and  by  eleven  o'clock  the 
whole  house  was  quiet.  Five  minutes 
before  midnight  Tommy  Tonker,  in- 
structed by  Mr.  Nuth,  who  waited  out- 
side, came  away  with  one  pocketful  of 
rings  and  shirt-studs.  It  was  quite  a 
light  pocketful,  but  the  jewellers  in  Paris 
could  not  match  it  without  sending  spe- 
cially to  Africa,  so  that  Lord  Castlenor- 
man had  to  borrow  bone  shirt-studs. 

Not  even  rumour  whispered  the  name 
of  Nuth.  Were  I  to  say  that  this  turned 
his  head;  there  are  those  to  whom  the 

89       How  Nuth  would  have  Prac- 
tised his  Art  upon  the  Gnole$ 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

assertion  would  give  pain,  for  his  associ- 
ates hold  that  his  astute  judgment  was 
unaffected  by  circumstance.  I  will  say, 
therefore,  that  it  spurred  his  genius  to 
plan  what  no  burglar  had  ever  planned 
before.  It  was  nothing  less  than  to  burgle 
the  house  of  the  gnoles.  And  this  that 
abstemious  man  unfolded  to  Tonker  over 
a  cup  of  tea.  Had  Tonker  not  been  nearly 
insane  with  pride  over  their  recent  trans- 
action, and  had  he  not  been  blinded  by  a 
veneration  for  Nuth,  he  would  have  — 
but  I  cry  over  spilt  milk.  He  expostu- 
lated respectfully:  he  said  he  would 
rather  not  go;  he  said  it  was  not  fair, 
he  allowed  himself  to  argue;  and  in  the 
end,  one  windy  October  morning  with  a 
menace  in  the  air  found  him  and  Nuth 
drawing  near  to  the  dreadful  wood. 

Nuth,  by  weighing  httle  emeralds 
against  pieces  of  common  rock,  had 
ascertained  the  probable  weight  of  those 
house-ornaments  that  the  gnoles  are  be- 
lieved to  possess  in  the  narrow,  lofty 
house  wherein  they  have  dwelt  from  of 
old.   They  decided  to  steal  two  emeralds 

How  Nuth  would  have  Prac-      QO 
fised  his  Art  upon  the  Gnoles 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

and  to  carry  them  between  them  on  a 
cloak;  but  if  they  should  be  too  heavy 
one  must  be  dropped  at  once.  Nuth 
warned  young  Tonker  against  greed,  and 
explained  that  the  emeralds  were  worth 
less  than  cheese  until  they  were  safe 
away  from  the  dreadful  wood. 

Everything  had  been  planned,  and  they 
walked  now  in  silence. 

No  track  led  up  to  the  sinister  gloom 
of  the  trees,  either  of  men  or  cattle;  not 
even  a  poacher  had  been  there  snaring 
elves  for  over  a  hundred  years.  You  did 
not  trespass  twice  in  the  dells  of  the 
gnoles.  And,  apart  from  the  things  that 
were  done  there,  the  trees  themselves 
were  a  warning,  and  did  not  wear  the 
wholesome  look  of  those  that  we  plant 
ourselves. 

The  nearest  village  was  some  miles 
away  with  the  backs  of  all  its  houses 
turned  to  the  wood,  and  without  one 
window  at  all  facing  in  that  direction. 
They  did  not  speak  of  it  there,  and  else- 
where it  is  unheard  of. 

Into    this    wood    stepped    Nuth   and 

91       How  Nuth  would  have  Prac- 
tised his  Art  upon  the  Gnoles 


The  Boo\  of  Wonder 

Tommy  Tonker.  They  had  no  firearms. 
Tonker  had  asked  for  a  pistol,  but  Nuth 
replied  that  the  sound  of  a  shot  ''would 
bring  everything  down  on  us,"  and  no 
more  was  said  about  it. 

Into  the  wood  they  went  all  day, 
deeper  and  deeper.  They  saw  the  skele- 
ton of  some  early  Georgian  poacher 
nailed  to  a  door  in  an  oak  tree;  sometimes 
they  saw  a  fairy  scuttle  away  from  them; 
once  Tonker  stepped  heavily  on  a  hard, 
dry  stick,  after  which  they  both  lay  still 
for  twenty  minutes.  And  the  sunset 
flared  full  of  omens  through  the  tree 
trunks,  and  night  fell,  and  they  came  by 
fitful  starlight,  as  Nuth  had  foreseen,  to 
that  lean,  high  house  where  the  gnoles  so 
secretly  dwelt. 

All  was  so  silent  by  that  unvalued 
house  that  the  faded  courage  of  Tonker 
flickered  up,  but  to  Nuth's  experienced 
sense  it  seemed  too  silent;  and  all  the 
while  there  was  that  look  in  the  sky  that 
was  worse  than  a  spoken  doom,  so  that 
Nuth,  as  is  often  the  case  when  men  are 
in  doubt,  had  leisure  to  fear  the  worst. 

How  Nuth  would  have  Prac-      g^ 
Used  his  Art  upon  the  Gnoles 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

Nevertheless  he  did  not  abandon  the 
business,  but  sent  the  Ukely  lad  with  the 
instruments  of  his  trade  by  means  of  the 
ladder  to  the  old  green  casement.  And 
the  moment  that  Tonker  touched  the 
withered  boards,  the  silence  that,  though 
ominous,  was  earthly,  became  unearthly 
like  the  touch  of  a  ghoul.  And  Tonker 
heard  his  breath  offending  against  that 
silence,  and  his  heart  was  like  mad  drums 
in  a  night  attack,  and  a  string  of  one  of 
his  sandals  went  tap  on  a  rung  of  a  ladder, 
and  the  leaves  of  the  forest  were  mute, 
and  the  breeze  of  the  night  was  still;  and 
Tonker  prayed  that  a  mouse  or  a  mole 
might  make  any  noise  at  all,  but  not  a 
creature  stirred,  even  Nuth  was  still. 
And  then  and  there,  while  yet  he  was 
undiscovered,  the  likely  lad  made  up  his 
mind,  as  he  should  have  done  long  before, 
to  leave  those  colossal  emeralds  where 
they  were  and  have  nothing  further  to  do 
with  the  lean,  high  house  of  the  gnoles, 
but  to  quit  this  sinister  wood  in  the  nick 
of  time  and  retire  from  business  at  once 
and  buy  a  place  in  the  country.  Then  he 

93       How  Nuth  would  have  Prac- 
tised his  Art  upon  the  Gnoles 


The  Book,  of  Wonder 

descended  softly  and  beckoned  to  Nuth. 
But  the  gnoles  had  watched  him  through 
knavish  holes  that  they  bore  in  trunks  of 
the  trees,  and  the  unearthly  silence  gave 
way,  as  it  were  with  a  grace,  to  the  rapid 
screams  of  Tonker  as  they  picked  him 
up  from  behind  —  screams  that  came 
faster  and  faster  until  they  were  inco- 
herent. And  where  they  took  him  it  is 
not  good  to  ask,  and  what  they  did  with 
him  I  shall  not  say. 

Nuth  looked  on  for  a  while  from  the 
corner  of  the  house  with  a  mild  surprise 
on  his  face  as  he  rubbed  his  chin,  for  the 
trick  of  the  holes  in  the  trees  was  new  to 
him;  then  he  stole  nimbly  away  through 
the  dreadful  wood. 

"And  did  they  catch  Nuth?"  you  ask 
me,  gentle  reader. 

"Oh,  no,  my  child"  (for  such  a  ques- 
tion is  childish).  "Nobody  ever  catches 
Nuth." 


How  Nuth  would  have  Prac-       94 
tised  his  Art  upon  the  Gnoles 


The  Lf:A.\,  High  House  ok  the  Gxoles 


How 

One  came, 

as  was  foretold, 

to  the  City  of  Never 

jhe  child  that  played  about 
the  terraces  and  gardens 
in  sight  of  the  Surrey  hills 
;  never  knew  that  it  was  he 
I  that  should  come  to  the 
Ultimate  City,  never  knew  that  he  should 
see  the  Under  Pits,  the  barbicans  and 
the  holy  minarets  of  the  mightiest  city 
known.  I  think  of  him  now  as  a  child 
with  a  little  red  watering-can  going  about 
the  gardens  on  a  summer's  day  that  lit 
the  warm  south  country,  his  imagination 
delighted  with  all  tales  of  quite  little  ad- 
ventures, and  all  the  while  there  was 
reserved  for  him  that  feat  at  which  men 
wonder. 


95  How  One  came  to  the 

Citu  of  Never 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

Looking  in  other  directions,  away  from 
the  Surrey  hills,  through  all  his  infancy 
he  saw  that  precipice  that,  wall  above 
wall  and  mountain  above  mountain, 
stands  at  the  edge  of  the  World,  and  in 
perpetual  twilight  alone  with  the  Moon 
and  the  Sun  holds  up  the  inconceivable 
City  of  Never.  To  tread  its  streets  he 
was  destined;  prophecy  knew  it.  He  had 
the  magic  halter,  and  a  worn  old  rope  it 
was,  an  old  wayfaring  woman  had  given 
it  to  him:  it  had  the  power  to  hold  any 
animal  whose  race  had  never  known  cap- 
tivity, such  as  the  unicorn,  the  hippogriff 
Pegasus,  dragons  and  wyverns;  but  with 
a  lion,  giraffe,  camel  or  horse  it  was  use- 
less. 

How  often  we  have  seen  that  City  of 
Never,  that  marvel  of  the  Nations!  Not 
when  it  is  night  in  the  World,  and  we 
can  see  no  further  than  the  stars;  not 
when  the  sun  is  shining  where  we  dwell, 
dazzling  our  eyes;  but  when  the  sun  has 
set  on  some  stormy  days,  all  at  once 
repentant  at  evening,  and  those  glitter- 
ing  cliffs   reveal    themselves   which   we 

How  One  came  to  the  96 

Citu  of  Never 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

almost  take  to  be  clouds,  and  it  is  twi- 
light with  us  as  it  is  for  ever  with  them, 
then  on  their  gleaming  sunmiits  we 
see  those  golden  domes  that  overpeer  the 
edges  of  the  World  and  seem  to  dance 
with  dignity  and  calm  in  that  gentle  Hght 
of  evening  that  is  Wonder's  native  haunt. 
Then  does  the  City  of  Never,  unvisited 
and  afar,  look  long  at  her  sister  the 
World. 

It  had  been  prophesied  that  he  should 
come  there.  They  knew  it  when  the 
pebbles  were  being  made  and  before  the 
isles  of  coral  were  given  unto  the  sea. 
And  thus  the  prophecy  came  unto  fulfil- 
ment and  passed  into  history,  and  so  at 
length  to  Oblivion,  out  of  which  I  drag 
it  as  it  goes  floating  by,  into  which  I 
shall  one  day  tumble.  The  hippogriffs 
dance  before  dawn  in  the  upper  air;  long 
before  sunrise  flashes  upon  our  lawns 
they  go  to  glitter  in  light  that  has  not 
yet  come  to  the  World,  and  as  the  dawn 
works  up  from  the  ragged  hills  and  the 
stars  feel  it  they  go  slanting  earthwards, 
till    sunlight    touches    the    tops    of    the 

97  How  One  came  to  the 

City  of  Never 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

tallest  trees,  and  the  hippogriffs  alight 
with  a  rattle  of  quills  and  fold  their 
wings  and  gallop  and  gambol  away  till 
they  come  to  some  prosperous,  wealthy, 
detestable  town,  and  they  leap  at  once 
from  the  fields  and  soar  away  from  the 
sight  of  it,  pursued  by  the  horrible  smoke 
of  it  until  they  come  again  to  the  pure 
blue  air. 

He  whom  prophecy  had  named  from 
of  old  to  come  to  the  City  of  Never,  went 
down  one  midnight  with  his  magic  halter 
to  a  lake-side  where  the  hippogriffs 
alighted  at  dawn,  for  the  turf  was  soft 
there  and  they  could  gallop  far  before 
they  came  to  a  town,  and  there  he  waited 
hidden  near  their  hoofmarks.  And  the 
stars  paled  a  little  and  grew  indistinct; 
but  there  was  no  other  sign  as  yet  of 
the  dawn,  when  there  appeared  far  up 
in  the  deeps  of  night  two  little  saffron 
specks,  then  four  and  five:  it  was  the 
hippogriffs  dancing  and  twirling  around 
in  the  sun.  Another  flock  joined  them, 
there  were  twelve  of  them  now;  they 
danced  there,  flashing  their  colours  back 

How  One  came  to  the  Qg 

Citu  of  Never 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

to  the  sun,  they  descended  in  wide 
curves  slowly;  trees  down  on  earth  re- 
vealed against  the  sky,  jet-black  each 
delicate  twig;  a  star  disappeared  from  a 
cluster,  now  another;  and  dawn  came  on 
Hke  music,  like  a  new  song.  Ducks  shot 
by  to  the  lake  from  still  dark  fields  of 
corn,  far  voices  uttered,  a  colour  grew 
upon  water,  and  still  the  hippogriffs 
gloried  in  the  light,  revelling  up  in  the 
sky;  but  when  pigeons  stirred  on  the 
branches  and  the  first  small  bird  was 
abroad,  and  little  coots  from  the  rushes 
ventured  to  peer  about,  then  there  came 
down  on  a  sudden  with  a  thunder  of 
feathers  the  hippogriffs,  and,  as  they 
landed  from  their  celestial  heights  all 
bathed  with  the  day's  first  sunhght,  the 
man  whose  destiny  it  was  from  of  old 
to  come  to  the  City  of  Never,  sprang  up 
and  caught  the  last  with  the  magic  halter. 
It  plunged,  but  could  not  escape  it,  for 
the  hippogriffs  are  of  the  uncaptured 
races,  and  magic  has  power  over  the 
magical,  so  the  man  mounted  it,  and  it 
soared  again  for  the  heights  whence  it 

99  How  One  came  to  the 

City  of  Never 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

had  come,  as  a  wounded  beast  goes  home. 
But  when  they  came  to  the  heights  that 
venturous  rider  saw  huge  and  fair  to  the 
left  of  him  the  destined  City  of  Never, 
and  he  beheld  the  towers  of  Lei  and  Lek, 
Neerib  and  Akathooma,  and  the  cliffs  of 
Toldenarba  a-glistering  in  the  twilight 
like  an  alabaster  statue  of  the  Evening. 
Towards  them  he  wrenched  the  halter, 
towards  Toldenarba  and  the  Under  Pits; 
the  wings  of  the  hippogriff  roared  as  the 
halter  turned  him.  Of  the  Under  Pits 
who  shall  tell?  Their  mystery  is  secret. 
It  is  held  by  some  that  they  are  the 
sources  of  night,  and  that  darkness  pours 
from  them  at  evening  upon  the  world; 
while  others  hint  that  knowledge  of  these 
might  undo  our  civilization. 

There  watched  him  ceaselessly  from  the 
Under  Pits  those  eyes  whose  duty  it  is; 
from  further  within  and  deeper,  the  bats 
that  dwell  there  arose  when  they  saw 
the  surprise  in  the  eyes;  the  sentinels  on 
the  bulwarks  beheld  that  stream  of  bats 
and  hfted  up  their  spears  as  it  were  for 
war.    Nevertheless  when  they  perceived 

How  One  came  to  the  JQQ 

City  of  Never 


The  City  of  Never 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

that  that  war  for  which  they  watched 
was  not  now  come  upon  them,  they  low- 
ered their  spears  and  suffered  him  to 
enter,  and  he  passed  whirring  through 
the  earthward  gateway.  Even  so  he  came, 
as  foretold,  to  the  City  of  Never  perched 
upon  Toldenarba,  and  saw  late  twihght 
on  those  pinnacles  that  know  no  other 
hght.  All  the  domes  were  of  copper,  but 
the  spires  on  their  summits  were  gold. 
Little  steps  of  onyx  ran  all  this  way  and 
that.  With  cobbled  agates  were  its  streets 
a  glory.  Through  small  square  panes  of 
rose-quartz  the  citizens  looked  from  their 
houses.  To  them  as  they  looked  abroad 
the  World  far-off  seemed  happy.  Clad 
though  that  city  was  in  one  robe  always, 
in  twilight,  yet  was  its  beauty  worthy 
of  even  so  lovely  a  wonder :  city  and  twi- 
light both  were  peerless  but  for  each 
other.  Built  of  a  stone  unknown  in  the 
world  we  tread  were  its  bastions,  quarried 
we  know  not  where,  but  called  by  the 
gnomes  abyx,  it  so  flashed  back  to  the 
twilight  its  glories,  colour  for  colour,  that 
none  can  say  of  them  where  their  boun- 

101  tiow  One  came  to  the 

City  of  Never 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

dary  is,  and  which  the  eternal  twilight, 
and  which  the  City  of  Never;  they  are 
the  twin-born  children,  the  fairest  daugh- 
ters of  Wonder.  Time  had  been  there,  but 
not  to  work  destruction;  he  had  turned 
to  a  fair,  pale  green  the  domes  that  were 
made  of  copper,  the  rest  he  had  left  un- 
touched, even  he,  the  destroyer  of  cities, 
by  what  bribe  I  know  not  averted. 
Nevertheless  they  often  wept  in  Never 
for  change  and  passing  away,  mourning 
catastrophes  in  other  worlds,  and  they 
built  temples  sometimes  to  ruined  stars 
that  had  fallen  flaming  down  from  the 
Milky  Way,  giving  them  worship  still 
when  by  us  long  since  forgotten.  Other 
temples  they  have  —  who  knows  to  what 
divinities? 

And  he  that  was  destined  alone  of 
men  to  come  to  the  City  of  Never  was 
well  content  to  behold  it  as  he  trotted 
down  its  agate  street,  with  the  wings  of 
his  hippogriff  furled,  seeing  at  either  side 
of  him  marvel  on  marvel  of  which  even 
China  is  ignorant.  Then  as  he  neared 
the  city's  further  rampart  by  which  no 

How  One  came  to  the  102 

City  of  Never 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

inhabitant  stirred,  and  looked  in  a  direc- 
tion to  which  no  houses  faced  with  any 
rose-pink  windows,  he  suddenly  saw  far- 
off,  dwarfing  the  mountains,  an  even 
greater  city.  Whether  that  city  was 
built  upon  the  twihght  or  whether  it  rose 
from  the  coasts  of  some  other  world  he 
did  not  know.  He  saw  it  dominate  the 
City  of  Never,  and  strove  to  reach  it; 
but  at  this  unmeasured  home  of  unknown 
colossi  the  hippogriff  shied  frantically, 
and  neither  the  magic  halter  nor  any- 
thing that  he  did  could  make  the  monster 
face  it.  At  last,  from  the  City  of  Never's 
lonely  outskirts  where  no  inhabitants 
walked,  the  rider  turned  slowly  earth- 
wards, he  knew  now  why  all  the  windows 
faced  this  way  —  the  denizens  of  the 
twilight  gazed  at  the  world  and  not  at  a 
greater  than  them.  Then  from  the  last 
step  of  the  earthward  stairway,  like  lead 
past  the  Under  Pits  and  down  the  glit- 
tering face  of  Toldenarba,  down  from 
the  overshadowed  glories  of  the  gold- 
tipped  City  of  Never  and  out  of  perpetual 
twilight,  swooped  the  man  on  his  winged 

103  How  One  came  to  the 

City  of  Never 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

monster:  the  wind  that  slept  at  the  time 
leaped  up  like  a  dog  at  their  onrush,  it 
uttered  a  cry  and  ran  past  them.  Down 
on  the  World  it  was  morning;  night  was 
roaming  away  with  his  cloak  trailed  be- 
hind him,  white  mists  turned  over  and 
over  as  he  went,  the  orb  was  grey  but  it 
glittered,  lights  blinked  surprisingly  in 
early  windows,  forth  over  wet,  dim  fields 
went  cows  from  their  houses:  even  in 
this  hour  touched  the  fields  again  the 
feet  of  the  hippogriff.  And  the  moment 
that  the  man  dismounted  and  took  off 
his  magic  halter  the  hippogriff  flew  slant- 
ing away  with  a  whirr,  going  back  to  some 
airy  dancing-place  of  his  people. 

And  he  that  surmounted  glittering 
Toldenarba  and  came  alone  of  men  to 
the  City  of  Never  has  his  name  and  his 
fame  among  nations;  but  he  and  the 
people  of  that  twilit  city  well  know  two 
things  unguessed  by  other  men,  they  that 
there  is  a  city  fairer  than  theirs,  and 
he  —  a  deed  unaccomplished. 


How  One  came  to  the  104 

City  of  Never 


The  Coronation  of 
Mr,  Thomas  Shap 

jt  was  the  occupation  of 
Mr.  Thomas  Shap  to  per- 
!suade  customers  that  the 
'goods  were  genuine  and  of 
I  an  excellent  quality,  and 
that  as  regards  the  price  their  unspoken 
will  was  consulted.  And  in  order  to  carry 
on  this  occupation  he  went  by  train  very 
early  every  morning  some  few  miles 
nearer  to  the  City  from  the  suburb  in 
which  he  slept.  This  was  the  use  to  which 
he  put  his  life. 

From  the  moment  when  he  first  per- 
ceived (not  as  one  reads  a  thing  in  a  book, 
but  as  truths  are  revealed  to  one's  in- 
stinct) the  very  beastHness  of  his  occu- 
pation, and  of  the  house  that  he  slept 
in,  its  shape,  make  and  pretensions,  and 
of  even  the  clothes  that  he  wore;  from 

105  The  Coronation  of 

Mr.  Thomas  Shap 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

that  moment  he  withdrew  his  dreams 
from  it,  his  fancies,  his  ambitions,  every- 
thing in  fact  except  that  ponderable  Mr. 
Shap  that  dressed  in  a  frock-coat,  bought 
tickets  and  handled  money  and  could  in 
turn  be  handled  by  the  statistician.  The 
priest's  share  in  Mr.  Shap,  the  share  of 
the  poet,  never  caught  the  early  train 
to  the  City  at  all. 

He  used  to  take  little  flights  with  his 
fancy  at  first,  dwelt  all  day  in  his  dreamy 
way  on  fields  and  rivers  lying  in  the  sun- 
light where  it  strikes  the  world  more 
brilliantly  further  South.  And  then  he 
began  to  imagine  butterflies  there;  after 
that,  silken  people  and  the  temples  they 
built  to  their  gods. 

They  noticed  that  he  was  silent,  and 
even  absent  at  times,  but  they  found  no 
fault  with  his  behaviour  with  customers, 
to  whom  he  remained  as  plausible  as  of 
old.  So  he  dreamed  for  a  year,  and  his 
fancy  gained  strength  as  he  dreamed. 
He  still  read  halfpenny  papers  in  the 
train,  still  discussed  the  passing  day's 
ephemeral  topic,  still  voted  at  elections, 

The  Coronation  of  106 

Mr.  Thomas  Shap 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

though  he  no  longer  did  these  things 
with  the  whole  Shap  —  his  soul  was  no 
longer  in  them. 

He  had  had  a  pleasant  year,  his  imagi- 
nation was  all  new  to  him  still,  and  it 
had  often  discovered  beautiful  things 
away  where  it  went,  southeast  at  the 
edge  of  the  twihght.  And  he  had  a 
matter-of-fact  and  logical  mind,  so  that 
he  often  said,  ''Why  should  I  pay  my 
twopence  at  the  electric  theatre  when  I 
can  see  all  sorts  of  things  quite  easily 
without?"  Whatever  he  did  was  logical 
before  anything  else,  and  those  that 
knew  him  always  spoke  of  Shap  as  "a, 
sound,  sane,  level-headed  man." 

On  far  the  most  important  day  of  his 
life  he  went  as  usual  to  town  by  the 
early  train  to  sell  plausible  articles  to 
customers,  while  the  spiritual  Shap 
roamed  off  to  fanciful  lands.  As  he 
walked  from  the  station,  dreamy  but 
wide  awake,  it  suddenly  struck  him  that 
the  real  Shap  was  not  the  one  walking 
to  Business  in  black  and  ugly  clothes, 
but   he   who   roamed   along   a   jungle's 

X07  The  Coronation  of 

Mr.  Thomas  Shap 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

edge  near  the  ramparts  of  an  old  and 
Eastern  city  that  rose  up  sheer  from  the 
sand,  and  against  which  the  desert  lapped 
with  one  eternal  wave.  He  used  to  fancy 
the  name  of  that  city  was  Larkar.  "After 
all,  the  fancy  is  as  real  as  the  body,"  he 
said  with  perfect  logic.  It  was  a  danger- 
ous theory. 

For  that  other  life  that  he  led  he  real- 
ized, as  in  Business,  the  importance  and 
value  of  method.  He  did  not  let  his 
fancy  roam  too  far  until  it  perfectly  knew 
its  first  surroundings.  Particularly  he 
avoided  the  jungle  —  he  was  not  afraid 
to  meet  a  tiger  there  (after  all  it  was  not 
real),  but  stranger  things  might  crouch 
there.  Slowly  he  built  up  Larkar:  ram- 
part by  rampart,  towers  for  archers, 
gateway  of  brass,  and  all.  And  then 
one  day  he  argued,  and  quite  rightly, 
that  all  the  silk-clad  people  in  its 
streets,  their  camels,  their  wares  that 
came  from  Inkustahn,  the  city  itself, 
were  all  the  things  of  his  will  —  and 
then  he  made  himself  King.  He  smiled 
after  that  when   people    did    not    raise 

The  Coronation  of  108 

Mr.  Thomas  Shop 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

their  hats  to  him  in  the  street,  as 
he  walked  from  the  station  to  Business; 
but  he  was  sufficiently  practical  to  recog- 
nize that  it  was  better  not  to  talk  of  this 
to  those  that  only  knew  him  as  Mr.  Shap. 
Now  that  he  was  King  in  the  city  of 
Larkar  and  in  all  the  desert  that  lay  to 
the  East  and  North  he  sent  his  fancy  to 
wander  further  afield.  He  took  the  regi- 
ments of  his  camel-guard  and  went  jing- 
ling out  of  Larkar,  with  little  silver  bells 
under  the  camels*  chins,  and  came  to 
other  cities  far-off  on  the  yellow  sand, 
with  clear  white  walls  and  towers,  up- 
lifting themselves  in  the  sun.  Through 
their  gates  he  passed  with  his  three  silken 
regiments,  the  light-blue  regiment  of  the 
camel-guard  being  upon  his  right  and  the 
green  regiment  riding  at  his  left,  the  lilac 
regiment  going  on  before.  When  he  had 
gone  through  the  streets  of  any  city  and 
observed  the  ways  of  its  people,  and  had 
seen  the  way  that  the  sunlight  struck  its 
towers,  he  would  proclaim  himself  King 
there,  and  then  ride  on  in  fancy.  So  he 
passed  from  city  to  city  and  from  land 

109  The  Coronation  of 

Mr.  Thomas  Shap 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

to  land.  Clear-sighted  though  Mr.  Shap 
was,  I  think  he  overlooked  the  lust  of 
aggrandizement  to  which  kings  have  so 
often  been  victims:  and  so  it  was  that 
when  the  first  few  cities  had  opened  their 
gleaming  gates  and  he  saw  peoples  pros- 
trate before  his  camel,  and  spearmen 
cheering  along  countless  balconies,  and 
priests  come  out  to  do  him  reverence, 
he  that  had  never  had  even  the  lowliest 
authority  in  the  familiar  world  became 
unwisely  insatiate.  He  let  his  fancy  ride 
at  inordinate  speed,  he  forsook  method, 
scarce  was  he  king  of  a  land  but  he 
yearned  to  extend  his  borders;  so  he 
journeyed  deeper  and  deeper  into  the 
wholly  unknown.  The  concentration 
that  he  gave  to  this  inordinate  progress 
through  countries  of  which  history  is 
ignorant  and  cities  so  fantastic  in  their 
bulwarks  that,  though  their  inhabitants 
were  human,  yet  the  foe  that  they  feared 
seemed  something  less  or  more;  the 
amazement  with  which  he  beheld  gates 
and  towers  unknown  even  to  art,  and 
furtive  people  thronging  intricate  ways 

The  Coronation  of  JIQ 

Mr.  Thomas  Shap 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

to  acclaim  him  as  their  sovereign;  all 
these  things  began  to  affect  his  capacity 
for  Business.  He  knew  as  well  as  any 
that  his  fancy  could  not  rule  these  beauti- 
ful lands  unless  that  other  Shap,  however 
unimportant,  were  well  sheltered  and  fed: 
and  shelter  and  food  meant  money,  and 
money,  Business.  His  was  more  like  the 
mistake  of  some  gambler  with  cunning 
schemes  who  overlooks  human  greed. 
One  day  his  fancy,  riding  in  the  morning, 
came  to  a  city  gorgeous  as  the  sunrise, 
in  whose  opalescent  wall  were  gates  of 
gold,  so  huge  that  a  river  poured  between 
the  bars,  floating  in,  when  the  gates  were 
opened,  large  galleons  under  sail.  Thence 
there  came  dancing  out  a  company  with 
instruments,  and  made  a  melody  all 
round  the  wall;  that  morning  Mr.  Shap, 
the  bodily  Shap  in  London,  forgot  the 
train  to  town. 

Until  a  year  ago  he  had  never  imagined 
at  all;  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  all 
these  things  now  newly  seen  by  his  fancy 
should  play  tricks  at  first  with  the  memory 

of  even  so  sane  a  man.  He  gave  up  read- 
in  The  Coronation  of 
Mr.  Thomas  Shap 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

ing  the  papers  altogether,  he  lost  all  in- 
terest in  politics,  he  cared  less  and  less 
for  things  that  were  going  on  around  him. 
This  unfortunate  missing  of  the  morning 
train  even  occurred  again,  and  the  firm 
spoke  to  him  severely  about  it.  But  he 
had  his  consolation.  Were  not  Arathrion 
and  Argun  Zeerith  and  all  the  level 
coasts  of  Oora  his?  And  even  as  the  firm 
found  fault  with  him  his  fancy  watched 
the  yaks  on  weary  journeys,  slow  specks 
against  the  snow-fields,  bringing  tribute; 
and  saw  the  green  eyes  of  the  mountain 
men  who  had  looked  at  him  strangely  in 
the  city  of  Nith  when  he  had  entered  it 
by  the  desert  door.  Yet  his  logic  did  not 
forsake  him;  he  knew  well  that  his  strange 
subjects  did  not  exist,  but  he  was  prouder 
of  having  created  them  with  his  brain, 
than  merely  of  ruling  them  only;  thus  in 
his  pride  he  felt  himself  something  more 
great  than  a  king,  he  did  not  dare  to 
think  what!  He  went  into  the  temple  of 
the  city  of  Zorra  and  stood  some  time 
there  alone:  all  the  priests  kneeled  to 
him  when  he  came  away. 

The  Coronation  of  112 

Mr.  Thomas  Shap 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

He  cared  less  and  less  for  the  things 
we  care  about,  for  the  affairs  of  Shap,  a 
business-man  in  London.  He  began  to 
despise  the  man  with  a  royal  contempt. 

One  day  when  he  sat  in  Sowla,  the  city 
of  the  Thuls,  throned  on  one  amethyst, 
he  decided,  and  it  was  proclaimed  on  the 
moment  by  silver  trumpets  all  along  the 
land,  that  he  would  be  crowned  as  king 
over  all  the  lands  of  Wonder. 

By  that  old  temple  where  the  Thuls 
were  worshipped,  year  in,  year  out,  for 
over  a  thousand  years,  they  pitched  pa- 
vilions in  the  open  air.  The  trees  that 
blew  there  threw  out  radiant  scents  un- 
known in  any  countries  that  know  the 
map;  the  stars  blazed  fiercely  for  that 
famous  occasion.  A  fountain  hurled  up, 
clattering,  ceaselessly  into  the  air  arm- 
fuls  on  armfuls  of  diamonds,  a  deep  hush 
waited  for  the  golden  trumpets,  the  holy 
coronation  night  was  come.  At  the  top 
of  those  old,  worn  steps,  going  down  we 
know  not  whither,  stood  the  king  in  the 
emerald-and-amethyst  cloak,  the  ancient 
garb  of  the  Thuls;  beside  him  lay  that 

113  The  CoTonation  cf 

Mr.  Thomas  Shop 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

Sphinx  that  for  the  last  few  weeks  had 
advised  him  in  his  affairs. 

Slowly,  with  music  when  the  trumpets 
sounded,  came  up  towards  him  from  we 
know  not  where,  one-hundred-and-twenty 
archbishops,  twenty  angels  and  two  arch- 
angels, with  that  terrific  crown,  the  dia- 
dem of  the  Thuls.  They  knew  as  they 
came  up  to  him  that  promotion  awaited 
them  all  because  of  this  night's  work. 
Silent,  majestic,  the  king  awaited  them. 

The  doctors  downstairs  were  sitting 
over  their  supper,  the  warders  softly 
slipped  from  room  to  room,  and  when  in 
that  cosy  dormitory  of  Hanwell  they  saw 
the  king  still  standing  erect  and  royal, 
his  face  resolute,  they  came  up  to  him 
and  addressed  him:  ''Go  to  bed,"  they 
said — ''pretty  bed."  So  he  lay  down 
and  soon  was  fast  asleep:  the  ^eat  day 
was  over. 


The  Coronation  of  II4 

Mr.  Thomas  Shap 


Thk  Cohonatiox  of  Mk.   Tko.mas  Shap 


Chu-Bu  andSheemish 


it  was  the  custom  on  Tues- 
days in  the  temple  of  Chu- 
I  bu  for  the  priests  to  enter  at 
evening  and  chant,  '^  There 
is  none  but  Chu-bu." 
And  all  the  people  rejoiced  and  cried 
out,  "There  is  none  but  Chu-bu."   And 
honey  was  offered  to  Chu-bu,  and  maize 
and  fat.   Thus  was  he  magnified. 

Chu-bu  was  an  idol  of  some  antiquity, 
as  may  be  seen  from  the  colour  of  the 
wood.  He  had  been  carved  out  of  ma- 
hogany, and  after  he  was  carved  he  had 
been  polished.  Then  they  had  set  him 
up  on  the  diorite  pedestal  with  the 
brazier  in  front  of  it  for  burning  spices 
and  the  flat  gold  plates  for  fat.  Thus 
they  worshipped  Chu-bu. 

He  must  have  been  there  for  over  a 
hundred  years  when  one  day  the  priests 
came  in  with  another  idol  into  the  temple 


115 


Chu-bu  and 
Sheemish 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

of  Chu-bu,  and  set  it  up  on  a  pedestal 
near  Chu-bu's  and  sang,  "There  is  also 
Sheemish." 

And  all  the  people  rejoiced  and  cried 
out,  ''There  is  also  Sheemish." 

Sheemish  was  palpably  a  modern  idol, 
and  although  the  wood  was  stained  with 
a  dark-red  dye,  you  could  see  that  he 
had  only  just  been  carved.  And  honey 
was  offered  to  Sheemish  as  well  as  Chu-bu, 
and  also  maize  and  fat. 

The  fury  of  Chu-bu  knew  no  time- 
limit;  he  was  furious  all  that  night,  and 
next  day  he  was  furious  still.  The  situa- 
tion called  for  immediate  miracles.  To 
devastate  the  city  with  a  pestilence  and 
kill  all  his  priests  was  scarcely  within  his 
power,  therefore  he  wisely  concentrated 
such  divine  powers  as  he  had  in  command- 
ing a  little  earthquake.  "Thus,*'  thought 
Chu-bu,  ''will  I  reassert  myself  as  the 
only  god,  and  men  shaU  spit  upon 
Sheemish." 

Chu-bu  willed  it  and  willed  it  and  stiU 
no  earthquake  came,  when  suddenly  he 
was  aware  that  the  hated  Sheemish  was 

Chu-bu  and  HQ 

Sheemish 


The  Book  of  bonder 

daring  to  attempt  a  miracle  too.  He 
ceased  to  busy  himself  about  the  earth- 
quake and  listened,  or  shall  I  say  felt, 
for  what  Sheemish  was  thinking;  for  gods 
are  aware  of  what  passes  in  the  mind  by 
a  sense  that  is  other  than  any  of  our  five. 
Sheemish  was  trying  to  make  an  earth- 
quake too. 

The  new  god's  motive  was  probably  to 
assert  himself.  I  doubt  if  Chu-bu  under- 
stood or  cared  for  his  motive,  it  was 
sufficient  for  an  idol  already  aflame  with 
jealousy  that  his  detestable  rival  was  on 
the  verge  of  a  miracle.  All  the  power  of 
Chu-bu  veered  round  at  once  and  set  dead 
against  an  earthquake,  even  a  little  one. 
It  was  thus  in  the  temple  of  Chu-bu  for 
some  time,  and  then  no  earthquake  came. 

To  be  a  god  and  to  fail  to  achieve  a 
miracle  is  a  despairing  sensation;  it  is  as 
though  among  men  one  should  determine 
upon  a  hearty  sneeze  and  as  though  no 
sneeze  should  come;  it  is  as  though  one 
should  try  to  swim  in  heavy  boots  or 
remember  a  name  that  is  utterly  forgot- 
ten: all  these  pains  were  Sheemish's. 

117  Chu-bu  and 

Sheemish 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

And  upon  Tuesday  the  priests  came  in, 
and  the  people,  and  they  did  worship 
Chu-bu  and  offered  fat  to  him,  saying, 
"0  Chu-bu  who  made  everything,"  and 
then  the  priests  sang,  ''There  is  also 
Sheemish,"  and  again  the  people  rejoiced 
and  cried  out,  "There  is  also  Sheemish"; 
and  Chu-bu  was  put  to  shame  and  spake 
not  for  three  days. 

Now  there  were  holy  birds  in  the 
temple  of  Chu-bu,  and  when  the  third 
day  was  come  and  the  night  thereof,  it 
was  as  it  were  revealed  to  the  mind  of 
Chu-bu,  that  there  was  dirt  upon  the 
head  of  Sheemish. 

And  Chu-bu  spake  unto  Sheemish  as 
speak  the  gods,  moving  no  lips  nor  yet 
disturbing  the  silence,  saying,  ''There  is 
dirt  upon  thy  head,  0  Sheemish."  All 
night  long  he  muttered  again  and  again, 
"There  is  dirt  upon  Sheemish's  head." 
And  when  it  was  dawn  and  voices  were 
heard  far  off,  Chu-bu  became  exultant 
with  Earth's  awakening  things,  and  cried 
out  till  the  sun  was  high,  "Dirt,  dirt, 
dirt,  upon  the  head  of  Sheemish,"  and 

Chu-bu  and  Hg 

Sheemish 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

at  noon  he  said,  ''So  Sheemish  would  be  a 
god."  Thus  was  Sheemish  confounded. 

And  with  Tuesday  one  came  and 
washed  his  head  with  rose-water,  and  he 
was  worshipped  again  when  they  sang 
''There  is  also  Sheemish."  And  yet  was 
Chu-bu  content,  for  he  said,  "The  head 
of  Sheemish  has  been  defiled,"  and  again, 
"His  head  was  defiled,  it  is  enough." 
And  one  evening  lo!  there  was  dirt  on 
the  head  of  Chu-bu  also,  and  the  thing 
was  perceived  of  Sheemish. 

It  is  not  with  the  gods  as  it  is  with 
men.  We  are  angry  one  with  another  and 
turn  from  our  anger  again,  but  the  wrath 
of  the  gods  is  enduring.  Chu-bu  remem- 
bered and  Sheemish  did  not  forget. 
They  spake  as  we  do  not  speak,  in  silence 
yet  heard  of  each  other,  nor  were  their 
thoughts  as  our  thoughts.  We  should 
not  judge  them  by  merely  himian  stand- 
ards. All  night  long  they  spake  and  all 
night  said  these  words  only:  "Dirty 
Chu-bu,"  "Dirty  Sheemish."  "Dirty 
Chu-bu,"  "Dirty  Sheemish,"  all  night 
long.  Their  wrath  had  not  tired  at  dawn, 

119  Chu-bu  and 

Sheemish 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

and  neither  had  wearied  of  his  accusa- 
tion. And  gradually  Chu-bu  came  to 
realize  that  he  was  nothing  more  than  the 
equal  of  Sheemish.  All  gods  are  jealous, 
but  this  equality  with  the  upstart  Sheem- 
ish, a  thing  of  painted  wood  a  hundred 
years  newer  than  Chu-bu,  and  this  wor- 
ship given  to  Sheemish  in  Chu-bu's  own 
temple,  were  particularly  bitter.  Chu-bu 
was  jealous  even  for  a  god;  and  when 
Tuesday  came  again,  the  third  day  of 
Sheemish's  worship,  Chu-bu  could  bear 
it  no  longer.  He  felt  that  his  anger  must 
be  revealed  at  all  costs,  and  he  returned 
with  all  the  vehemence  of  his  will  to 
achieving  a  little  earthquake.  The  wor- 
shippers had  just  gone  from  his  temple 
when  Chu-bu  settled  his  will  to  attain 
this  miracle,  now  and  then  his  medita- 
tions were  disturbed  by  the  now  familiar 
dictum,  "Dirty  Chu-bu,"  but  Chu-bu 
willed  ferociously,  not  even  stopping  to 
say  what  he  longed  to  say  and  had  al- 
ready said  nine  hundred  times,  and  pres- 
ently even  these  interruptions  ceased. 
They   ceased   because    Sheemish   had 

Chu-bu  and  120 

Sheemish 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

returned  to  a  project  that  he  had  never 
definitely  abandoned,  the  desire  to  assert 
himself  and  exalt  himself  over  Chu-bu 
by  performing  a  miracle,  and  the  district 
being  volcanic  he  had  chosen  a  little 
earthquake  as  the  miracle  most  easily 
accomplished  by  a  small  god. 

Now  an  earthquake  that  is  commanded 
b}^  two  gods  has  double  the  chance  of 
fulfilment  than  when  it  is  willed  by  one, 
and  an  incalculably  greater  chance  than 
when  two  gods  are  pulling  different  ways; 
as,  to  take  the  case  of  older  and  greater 
gods,  when  the  sun  and  the  moon  pull  in 
the  same  direction  we  have  the  biggest 
tides. 

Chu-bu  knew  nothing  of  the  theory  of 
tides,  and  was  too  much  occupied  with 
his  miracle  to  notice  what  Sheemish  was 
doing.  And  suddenly  the  miracle  was 
an  accomplished  thing. 

It  was  a  very  local  earthquake,  for 
there  are  other  gods  than  Chu-bu  or 
even  Sheemish,  and  it  was  only  a  little 
one  as  the  gods  had  willed,  but  it  loos- 
ened some  monoliths  in  a  colonnade  that 

121  Chu-hu  and 

Sheemish 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

supported  one  side  of  the  temple  and  the 
whole  of  one  wall  fell  in,  and  the  low  huts 
of  the  people  of  that  city  were  shaken  a 
little  and  some  of  their  doors  were  jammed 
so  that  they  would  not  open;  it  was 
enough,  and  for  a  moment  it  seemed  that 
it  was  all;  neither  Chu-bu  nor  Sheemish 
commanded  there  should  be  more,  but 
they  had  set  in  motion  an  old  law  older 
than  Chu-bu,  the  law  of  gravity  that 
that  colonnade  had  held  back  for  a  hun- 
dred years,  and  the  temple  of  Chu-bu 
quivered  and  then  stood  still,  swayed 
once  and  was  overthrown,  on  the  heads 
of  Chu-bu  and  Sheemish. 

No  one  rebuilt  it,  for  nobody  dared 
go  near  such  terrible  gods.  Some  said 
that  Chu-bu  wrought  the  miracle,  but 
some  said  Sheemish,  and  thereof  schism 
was  born;  the  weakly  amiable,  alarmed 
by  the  bitterness  of  rival  sects,  sought 
compromise  and  said  that  both  had 
wrought  it,  but  no  one  guessed  the  truth 
that  the  thing  was  done  in  rivalry. 

And  a  saying  arose,  and  both  sects 
held  thijj  belief  in  common,  that  whoso 

Chu-bu  and  122 

Sheemish 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

toucheth  Chu-bu  shall  die  or  whoso 
looketh  upon  Sheemish. 

That  is  how  Chu-bu  came  into  my 
possession  when  I  travelled  once  beyond 
the  Hills  of  Ting.  I  found  him  in  the 
fallen  temple  of  Chu-bu  with  his  hands 
and  toes  sticking  up  out  of  the  rubbish, 
lying  upon  his  back,  and  in  that  attitude 
just  as  I  found  him  I  keep  him  to  this 
day  on  my  mantelpiece,  as  he  is  less 
Hable  to  be  upset  that  way.  Sheemish 
was  broken,  so  I  left  him  where  he  was. 

And  there  is  something  so  helpless 
about  Chu-bu  with  his  fat  hands  stuck 
up  in  the  air  that  sometimes  I  am  moved 
out  of  compassion  to  bow  down  to  him 
and  pray,  saying,  ''0  Chu-bu,  thou  that 
made  everything,  help  thy  servant." 

Chu-bu  cannot  do  much,  though  once 
I  am  sure  that  at  a  game  of  bridge  he 
sent  me  the  ace  of  trumps  after  I  had 
not  held  a  card  worth  having  for  the 
whole  of  the  evening.  And  chance  could 
have  done  as  much  as  that  for  me,  but  I 
do  not  tell  this  to  Chu-bu. 


123  Chu-bu  and 

Sheemish 


The  TVonderful 
Window 

he  old  man  in  the  Oriental- 
looking  robe  was  being 
moved  on  by  the  police,  and 
it  was  this  that  attracted  to 
him  and  the  parcel  under 
his  arm  the  attention  of  Mr.  Sladden, 
whose  livelihood  was  earned  in  the  em- 
porium of  Messrs.  Mergin  and  Chater, 
that  is  to  say  in  their  establishment. 

Mr.  Sladden  had  the  reputation  of 
being  the  silliest  young  man  in  Business; 
a  touch  of  romance  —  a  mere  suggestion 
of  it  —  would  send  his  eyes  gazing  away 
as  though  the  walls  of  the  emporium 
were  of  gossamer  and  London  itself  a 
myth,  instead  of  attending  to  customers. 
Merely  the  fact  that  the  dirty  piece 
of  paper  that  wrapped  the  old  man's 
parcel  was  covered  with  Arabic  writing 

Tho.  124 

Wonderful  Window 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

was  enough  to  give  Mr.  Sladden  the  idea 
of  romance,  and  he  followed  until  the 
little  crowd  fell  off  and  the  stranger 
stopped  by  the  kerb  and  unwrapped  his 
parcel  and  prepared  to  sell  the  thing  that 
was  inside  it.  It  was  a  little  window  in 
old  wood  with  small  panes  set  in  lead; 
it  was  not  much  more  than  a  foot  in 
breadth  and  was  under  two  feet  long. 
Mr.  Sladden  had  never  before  seen  a 
window  sold  in  the  street,  so  he  asked 
the  price  of  it. 

''  Its  price  is  all  you  possess,"  said 
the   old   man. 

'^ Where   did  you  get  it?"   said   Mr. 
Sladden,  for  it  was  a  strange  window. 

^'I  gave  all  that  I  possessed  for  it  in 
the  streets  of  Baghdad." 

''Did  you  possess  much?"  said  Mr. 
Sladden. 

"I  had  all  that  I  wanted,"  he  said, 
"except  this  window." 

''It  must  be  a  good  window,"  said  the 
young  man. 

"It  is  a  magical  window,"  said  the  old 
one. 

125  Tfte 

Wonderful  Window 


The  Book  o/  Wonder 

"I  have  only  ten  shillings  on  me,  but 
I  have  fifteen-and-six  at  home." 

The  old  man  thought  for  a  while. 

''Then  twenty-five-and-sixpence  is  the 
price  of  the  window,"  he  said. 

It  was  only  when  the  bargain  was 
completed  and  the  ten  shilUngs  paid  and 
the  strange  old  man  was  coming  for  his 
fifteen-and-six  and  to  fit  the  magical 
window  into  his  only  room  that  it  oc- 
curred to  Mr.  Sladden's  mind  that  he 
did  not  want  a  window.  And  then  they 
were  at  the  door  of  the  house  in  which  he 
rented  a  room^  and  it  seemed  too  late  to 
explain. 

The  stranger  demanded  privacy  while 
he  fitted  up  the  window,  so  Mr.  Sladden 
remained  outside  the  door  at  the  top  of 
a  little  flight  of  creaky  stairs.  He  heard 
no  sound  of  hammering. 

And  presently  the  strange  old  man 
came  out  with  his  faded  yellow  robe  and 
his  great  beard,  and  his  eyes  on  far-off 
places.  "It  is  finished,"  he  said,  and  he 
and  the  young  man  parted.  And  whether 
he  remained  a   spot   of   colour  and  an 

The  126 

Wonderful  Window 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

anachronism  in  London,  or  whether  he 
ever  came  again  to  Baghdad,  and  what 
dark  hands  kept  on  the  circulation  of  his 
twenty-five-and-six,  Mr.  Sladden  never 
knew. 

Mr.  Sladden  entered  the  bare-boarded 
room  in  which  he  slept  and  spent  all  his 
indoor  hours  between  closing-time  and 
the  hour  at  which  Messrs.  Mergin  and 
Chater  commenced.  To  the  Penates  of 
so  dingy  a  room  his  neat  frock-coat  must 
have  been  a  continual  wonder.  Mr. 
Sladden  took  it  off  and  folded  it  care- 
fully; and  there  was  the  old  man's  win- 
dow rather  high  up  in  the  wall.  There 
had  been  no  window  in  that  wall  hitherto, 
nor  any  ornament  at  all  but  a  small  cup- 
board, so  when  Mr.  Sladden  had  put  his 
frock-coat  safely  away  he  glanced  through 
his  new  window.  It  was  where  his  cup- 
board had  been  in  which  he  kept  his  tea- 
things:  they  were  all  standing  on  the 
table  now.  When  Mr.  Sladden  glanced 
through  his  new  window  it  was  late  in  a 
summer's  evening;  the  butterflies  some 
while  ago  would  have  closed  their  wings, 

127  ^'•« 

Wonderful  Window 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

though  the  bat  would  scarcely  yet  be 
drifting  abroad  —  but  this  was  in  Lon- 
don: the  shops  were  shut  and  street-lamps 
not  yet  Hghted. 

Mr.  Sladden  rubbed  his  eyes,  then 
rubbed  the  window,  and  still  he  saw  a 
sky  of  blazing  blue,  and  far,  far  down 
beneath  him,  so  that  no  sound  came  up 
from  it  or  smoke  of  chimneys,  a  mediaeval 
city  set  with  towers.  Brown  roofs  and 
cobbled  streets,  and  then  white  walls  and 
buttresses,  and  beyond  them  bright  green 
fields  and  tiny  streams.  On  the  towers 
archers  lolled,  and  along  the  walls  were 
pikemen,  and  now  and  then  a  wagon 
went  down  some  old-world  street  and 
lumbered  through  the  gateway  and  out 
to  the  country,  and  now  and  then  a 
wagon  drew  up  to  the  city  from  the  mist 
that  was  rolling  with  evening  over  the 
fields.  Sometimes  folk  put  their  heads 
out  of  lattice  windows,  sometimes  some 
idle  troubadour  seemed  to  sing,  and  no- 
body hurried  or  troubled  about  anything. 
Airy  and  dizzy  though  the  distance  was, 
for  Mr.  Sladden  seemed  higher  above  the 

The  128 

Wonderful  Window 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

city  than  any  cathedral  gargoyle,  yet 
one  clear  detail  he  obtained  as  a  clue: 
the  banners  floating  from  every  tower 
over  the  idle  archers  had  little  golden 
dragons  all  over  a  pure  white  field. 

He  heard  motor-buses  roar  by  his  other 
window,  he  heard  the  newsboys  howling. 

Mr.  Sladden  grew  dreamier  than  ever 
after  that  on  the  premises,  in  the  estab- 
lishment, of  Messrs.  Mergin  and  Chater. 
But  in  one  matter  he  was  wise  and  wake- 
ful: he  made  continuous  and  careful 
inquiries  about  golden  dragons  on  a 
white  flag,  and  talked  to  no  one  of  his 
wonderful  window.  He  came  to  know 
the  flags  of  every  king  in  Europe,  he 
even  dabbled  in  history,  he  made  in- 
quiries at  shops  that  understood  heraldry, 
but  nowhere  could  he  learn  any  trace  of 
little  dragons  or  on  a  field  argent.  And 
when  it  seemed  that  for  him  alone  those 
golden  dragons  had  fluttered  he  came 
to  love  them  as  an  exile  in  some  desert 
might  love  the  lilies  of  his  home  or  as  a 
sick  man  might  love  swallows  when  he 
cannot  easily  live  to  another  spring. 

129  ^''^ 

Wonderful  Window 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

As  soon  as  Messrs.  Mergin  and  Chater 
closed,  Mr.  Sladden  used  to  go  back  to 
his  dingy  room  and  gaze  through  the 
wonderful  window  until  it  grew  dark  in 
the  city  and  the  guard  would  go  with  a 
lantern  round  the  ramparts  and  the 
night  came  up  like  velvet,  full  of  strange 
stars.  Another  clue  he  tried  to  obtain 
one  night  by  jotting  down  the  shapes  of 
the  constellations,  but  this  led  him  no 
further,  for  they  were  unlike  any  that 
shone  upon  either  hemisphere. 

Each  day  as  soon  as  he  woke  he  went 
first  to  the  wonderful  window,  and  there 
was  the  city,  diminutive  in  the  distance, 
all  shining  in  the  morning,  and  the  golden 
dragons  dancing  in  the  sun,  and  the 
archers  stretching  themselves  or  swinging 
their  arms  on  the  tops  of  the  windy 
towers.  The  window  would  not  open,  so 
that  he  never  heard  the  songs  that  the 
troubadours  sang  down  there  beneath 
gilded  balconies;  he  did  not  even  hear 
the  belfries'  chimes,  though  he  saw  the 
jackdaws  routed  every  hour  from  their 
homes.  And  the  first  thing  that  he  always 

The  130 

Wonderful  Window 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

did  was  to  cast  his  eye  round  all  the  little 
towers  that  rose  up  from  the  ramparts 
to  see  that  the  little  golden  dragons  were 
flying  there  on  their  flags.  And  when  he 
saw  them  flaunting  themselves  on  white 
folds  from  every  tower  against  the  mar- 
vellous deep  blue  of  the  sky  he  dressed 
contentedly,  and,  taking  one  last  look, 
went  off  to  his  work  with  a  glory  in  his 
mind.  It  would  have  been  difficult  for 
the  customers  of  Messrs.  Mergin  and 
Chater  to  guess  the  precise  ambition  of 
Mr.  Sladden  as  he  walked  before  them  in 
his  neat  frock-coat:  it  was  that  he  might 
be  a  man-at-arms  or  an  archer  in  order 
to  fight  for  the  little  golden  dragons  that 
flew  on  a  white  flag  for  an  unknown  king 
in  an  inaccessible  city.  At  first  Mr. 
Sladden  used  to  walk  round  and  round 
the  mean  street  that  he  fived  in,  but  he 
gained  no  clue  from  that;  and  soon  he 
noticed  that  quite  different  winds  blew 
below  his  wonderful  window  from  those 
that  blew  on  the  other  side  of  the  house. 
In  August  the  evenings  began  to  grow 
shorter:  this  was  the  very  remark  that 

131  The 

Wonderful  Window 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

the  other  employes  made  to  him  at  the 
emporium,  so  that  he  almost  feared  that 
they  suspected  his  secret,  and  he  had 
much  less  time  for  the  wonderful  window, 
for  lights  were  few  down  there  and  they 
blinked  out  early. 

One  morning  late  in  August,  just  be- 
fore he  went  to  Business,  Mr.  Sladden 
saw  a  company  of  pikemen  running  down 
the  cobbled  road  towards  the  gateway  of 
the  mediseval  city  —  Golden  Dragon  City 
he  used  to  call  it  alone  in  his  own  mind, 
but  he  never  spoke  of  it  to  anyone.  The 
next  thing  that  he  noticed  was  that  the 
axchers  on  the  towers  were  talking  a 
good  deal  together  and  were  handling 
round  bundles  of  arrows  in  addition  to 
the  quivers  which  they  wore.  Heads 
were  thrust  out  of  windows  more  than 
usual,  a  woman  ran  out  and  called  some 
children  indoors,  a  knight  rode  down  the 
street,  and  then  more  pikemen  appeared 
along  the  walls,  and  all  the  jackdaws 
were  in  the  air.  In  the  street  no  trouba- 
dour sang.  Mr.  Sladden  took  one  look 
along  the  towers  to  see  that  the  flags 

The  132 

Wonderful  Window 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

were  flying,  and  all  the  golden  dragons 
were  streaming  in  the  wind.  Then  he 
had  to  go  to  Business.  He  took  a  'bus 
back  that  evening  and  ran  upstairs. 
Nothing  seemed  to  be  happening  in 
Golden  Dragon  City  except  a  crowd  in 
the  cobbled  street  that  led  down  to  the 
gateway;  the  archers  seemed  to  be  reclin- 
ing as  usual  lazily  in  their  towers,  then  a 
white  flag  went  down  with  all  its  golden 
dragons;  he  did  not  see  at  first  that  all 
the  archers  were  dead.  The  crowd  was 
pouring  towards  him,  towards  the  precipi- 
tous wall  from  which  he  looked,  men 
with  a  white  flag  covered  with  golden 
dragons  were  moving  backwards  slowly, 
men  with  another  flag  were  pressing  them, 
a  flag  on  which  there  was  one  huge  red 
bear.  Another  banner  went  down  upon 
a  tower.  Then  he  saw  it  aU:  the  golden 
dragons  were  being  beaten  —  his  little 
golden  dragons.  The  men  of  the  bear 
were  coming  under  the  window;  what- 
ever he  threw  from  that  height  would 
fall  with  terrific  force :  fire-irons,  coal,  his 
clock,  whatever  he  had  —  he  would  fight 

133  The 

Wonderful  Window 


The  Book  of  Wonder 

for  his  little  golden  dragons  yet.  A  flame 
broke  out  from  one  of  the  towers  and 
licked  the  feet  of  a  reclining  archer;  he 
did  not  stir.  And  now  the  alien  standard 
was  out  of  sight  directly  underneath. 
Mr.  Sladden  broke  the  panes  of  the  won- 
derful window  and  wrenched  away  with  a 
poker  the  lead  that  held  them.  Just  as 
the  glass  broke  he  saw  a  banner  covered 
with  golden  dragons  fluttering  still,  and 
then  as  he  drew  back  to  hurl  the  poker 
there  came  to  him  the  scent  of  mysterious 
spices,  and  there  was  nothing  there,  not 
even  the  daylight,  for  behind  the  frag- 
ments of  the  wonderful  window  was 
nothing  but  that  small  cupboard  in  which 
he  kept  his  tea-things. 

And  though  Mr.  Sladden  is  older  now 
and  knows  more  of  the  world,  and  even 
has  a  Business  of  his  own,  he  has  never 
been  able  to  buy  such  another  window, 
and  has  not  ever  since,  either  from  books 
or  men,  heard  any  rumour  at  all  of 
Golden  Dragon  City. 


The  134 

Wonderful  Window 


Epilogue 


Here  the  fourteenth  Episode  of  the 
Book  of  Wonder  endeth  and  here  the 
relating  of  the  Chronicles  of  Little  Ad- 
ventui'es  at  the  Edge  of  the  World.  I 
take  farewell  of  my  readers.  But  it  may 
be  we  shall  even  meet  again,  for  it  is 
still  to  be  told  how  the  gnomes  robbed 
the  fairies,  and  of  the  vengeance  that 
the  fairies  took,  and  how  even  the  gods 
themselves  were  troubled  thereby  in 
their  sleep;  and  how  the  King  of  Ool 
insulted  the  troubadours,  thinking  him- 
self safe  among  his  scores  of  archers  and 
hundreds  of  halberdiers,  and  how  the 
troubadours  stole  to  his  towers  by  night, 
and  under  his  battlements  by  the  light 
of  the  moon  made  that  king  ridiculous 
for  ever  in  song.  But  for  this  I  must  first 
return  to  the  Edge  of  the  World.  Behold, 
the  caravans  start. 


« 


h)^^-^-^  ^ 


r~^ 


q^tr->i:M: 


